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THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 



(love, god) 




SYMBOL OP FIRE 



BY DR. R. SWINBURNE CLYMER 



Author of " The Eosicrucians; their teachings ^'^^ ^^ Ancient 

Mystic Oriental Masonry^\ ^^True Spiritual- 

isMj^^ ^^ Divine Alchemy, ^^ etc. 



REVISED EDITION. COPYRIGHTED. 



Published by 

Thb Philosophical Publishing Co. 

Allkntown, Pa. 



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\ OCT 29 ^^e^ 

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DEDICATION 

To her who must be NAMELESS but 
who has so faithfully stood by me in all 
my sorrow and trouble and who is still 
the Guiding Spirit of my work, and also, 
to all such who are working for the good 
of ALL and the Universal Brotherhood 
of Man, is this work Lovingly dedicated. 

BY THE AUTHOR. 



1907 

POINTED AND BOUND 

FOR THE PHILOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING CO. 

BY THE OCCULT PUBLISHING CO, 

BATTLE CMEEK, MICH. 

U, S, A. 



PREFACE. 



{Second and Enlarged Editimi.) 



When, less than a year ago, the first edition of 
the "Philosophy of Fire " was issued, we had feared 
that the whole edition could never be sold, knowing 
how slowly books of this nature sell. What then 
was our surprise when we found that some of those 
who first subscribed to the book would order as 
many as six copies to present to their friends, and 
what still more surprised us was that many of the 
Occult Orders would order many copies for their 
members. And now, all within one short year, the 
whole edition of the book is sold, and not a single 
letter of criticism has been received except in a few 
instances where the purchasers thought the appear- 
ance could be better. Nor can we blame them for 
it was far from perfect although we had ordered, 
and been promised, the best possible work. 

Now that the opportunity is presented to issue 
another edition, I have taken time to enlarge the 
work and have added a large chapter on the Rosi- 
crucian Fire-Philosophy, ma^inly from the work 
"The Rosicrucians, their Rites and Mysteries" by 
Hargrave Jennings, and which is a work that is not 
to be had at the present time, and therefore gives 
greater value to the present edition of this work. 
1 I 



6 PREFACE 

With this addition to the work and the far more 
perfect workmanship, we beheve that it will sell 
even faster than did the first edition, and, from the 
way orders are coming in at this present time, we 
have no doubt but that another edition will be needed 
within the year. For all this we beg to thank our sub- 
scribers and to assure them that we more than appreci- 
ate their effort to spread this great Doctrine^ the funda- 
mental principle of All Religion, 

R. SWINBURNE CLYMER. 

Allentown, Pa., February 10, 1907. 



INTRODUCTION. 



*' There is nothing neio under the sun *' 



Thus has a wise man said in the long ago and 
Marie Corelli, the most justly famous authoress of 
the present day, in her beautiful book, ''A Romance 
of Two Worlds," says: "Yours? Why, what can 
you call your own? Every talent you have, every 
breath you draw, every drop of blood flowing in 
your veins, is lent to you only; you must pay it all 
back. And as far as the arts go, it is a bad sign of 
poet, painter, or musician, who is arrogant enough 
to call his work his own. It never was his and 
never will be. It is planned by a higher intelli- 
gence than his, only he happens to be the hired lab- 
orer chosen to carry out the conception ; a sort of 
mechanic in whom boastfulness looks absurd; as 
absurd as if one of the stone-masons working at 
the cornice of a cathedral were to vaunt himself as 
the designer of the whole edifice. And when a 
work, any work, is completed, it passes out of the 
laborer's hands ; it belongs to the age and the peo- 
ple for whom it was accomplished, and, if deserving, 
goes on belonging to the future ages and future 
peoples." So with the book that is now being 
placed before the reader, I wish him to remember 
that it is not my own. I have taken the works of 

7 



8 INTRODUCTION 

many of those before me and have tried to choose 
therefrom such material as has appealed to me. I 
have taken this material and have tried to arrange 
it so as to form one harmonious whole. I wish the 
reader to understand that even this material was 
not original with the authors from whom I quote. 
For instance, the Secret Doctrine has come down 
to us from the Temples of Atlantis and no one is 
able to tell us how long ago that may have been. 
The Ancient Mysteries also were handed down by 
Initiate to Initiate from that same time. The ques- 
tion may weU be asked by the reader why it is nec- 
essary to again repeat the things that have already 
been written? It is a fair question and deserves a 
fair answer. It is for the reason that these authors 
stated thefoMs here set forth ^ in the negative form. It 
is my desire to state that they are positive facts. Facts 
that can he verified by ^^ Him who truly seeks in earnest. " 
In many cases, these authors state the things that 
they had read, and, not belonging to any Fraternity 
that can give them the positive facts, and not having 
access to the secret records, are unable to say that 
these things are true. Knowing the interest taken 
in the Higher Science, Occultism, Mysticism and 
the True Initiation, and having the records at my 
command which prove that the things herein writ- 
ten are true, is my excuse for the compilation of 
the presest work. I do not wish to be accused of 
plagiarism and therefore the foregoing. I do not 
claim that a single line in this book is my own. I 
claim nothing, but give the credit to those who have 
gone before me. If you find anything original, 



INTRODUCTION 9 

give the credit to those who have taught me and not 
to me. By doing this, you vv^ill not give me credit 
for that which does not belong to me. One thing I 
wish the truly interested reader to remember — 
whatever is herein written is absolutely true and 
if you are willing to so change your life as to be 
worthy, there are those who are ever ready to teach 
you and show you the Path that leads to Initiation 
— The finding of the Christ 

History informs us that: "As soon as mankind 
recognized the relation between themselves and a 
Creator, and acknowledged moral responsibility to a 
Supreme Moral Government, then Religion became 
a pertinent fact, and systems of religion were intro- 
duced, whereby, in an objective form, their subjec- 
ivity could be outwardly made manifest. 

"These systems are divided into monotheism and 
Polytheism: the latter includes Dualism andTrithe- 
ism. The lowest grade of Polytheism is Fetichism, 
or idolatry, which teaches the worship of inanimate 
nature, stocks and stones, and the work of the hands 
of men. Next is Pyrolatry, or worship of Fire; and 
Sabaeism, worship of the sun. 

"The first step of each Master or Reformer was 
to receive a mission and revelation from some God: 
thus — Amasis and Mneves, Lawgivers of the Egyp- 
tians, received their laws from Mercury (Thoth); 
Zoroaster of the Bactrians, and Zamolxis, lawgiver 
of the Getes, from Vesta; Zathraustes, of the Arm- 
aspi, from a good Spirit or Genius : and all progaged 
the doctrine of the "Law of Karma." There is no 
doubt but that all of them were Initiates of the 



10 INTRODUCTION 

Secret Orders then existing and which Orders 
taught the Secret Doctrine and Ancient Mysteries 
— as well as the Mystery of the Fire. That this is 
true will be shown farther on. 

Rhadamanthus and Minos, lawgivers of Crete, 
and Lycaon of Arcadia, had intercourse with Jupi- 
ter; Triptolemus of Athens was inspired by Ceres, 
Pythagoras and Zaleucus, for the Crotonians and 
Locrians, ascribed their institutions to Minerva, 
Lycurgus of Sparta acted by direction of Apollo, 
and Komulus and Numa of Rome put themselves 
under the guidance of Consus and the goddess 
Egeria. 

The first Chinese monarch was called * 'Fag-Four" 
— ''The Son of Heaven." Tuesco, the founder of 
the German nations, was sent to reduce mankind 
from their savage and bestial life to one of order 
and society, as appears from his name, which sig- 
nifies the "interpreter of the gods." Thor and 
Dgin, the lawgivers of the Western Goths, laid claim 
to inspiration and to divinity, and they have given 
the names to two of the days of the week. 

Plato makes legislation to have been derived from 
God, and the constant epithets to kings in Homer 
are Dio-geneis, "born of the gods," and Dio-trepheis, 
"bred or or tutored by the gods. " When true Ini- 
tiation is once understood by scholars they will no 
longer deny that man can be taught by God or by 
the Supreme Intelligence, for such a thing is pos- 
sible, and Divine Revelations to man or to the mind 
and soul of man, is not so hard or impossible a 
thing. That these Masters and Reformers received 



INTRODUCTION 11 

their instructions direct there is no doubt. Man 
can come into direct communication with his God if 
he is wiUing to hve such a hfe as will make this pos- 
sible. In the following work, both proofs of this 
fact and instructions are given. No one may say 
that he did not know. 

Plutarch, in "Isis and Osiris," says: "It was a 
most Ancient opinion, derived as well by lawgivers 
as divines, that the world was not made by chance, 
neither did one cause govern all things without 
opposition." 

This is the doctrine of Zoroaster, in which were 
taught two opposite principles by which the world 
was governed. 

The first Religion or Mysteries were those of 
Atlantis and known as the Hermetic Philosophy. 
Later, we have the Oriental Mysteries of Isis and 
Osiris in Egypt. These Mysteries are the same as 
the Hermetic Philosophy of Atlantis and are but 
known under another name. The study of the 
Mysteries of Isis and Osiris will prove to the stud- 
ent that this was a pure Fire Philosophy and this 
is proven in the pages that are to follow. 

Zoroaster brought these Mysteries into Persia; 
Cadmus and Inachus, into Greece at large, Orpheus, 
into Thrace, Melampsus, into Athens. 

As these Ancient, — '*Atlantian Mysteries" — 
they should be called, — were to Isis and Osiris in 
Egypt; so they were to Mythras in Asia; in Samo- 
thrace, to the Mother of the Gods ; in Boeotia to 
Bacchus; in Cyprus to Venus; in Crete to Jupiter; 
in Athens to Ceres and Proserpine; in Amphura to 



12 INTRODUCTION 

Castor and Pollux; in Lamnos to Vulcan. The 
most noted of these were the Orphic, Bacchic, Eleu- 
sinian, Samothracian, Oabiric, and Mithriac. It 
was agreed by Origen and Celsus that the Myster- 
ies taught the future life, the Law of Karma, and 
the Law of Reincarnation. It was taught that the 
Initiated would be happier than other mortals 
because they lived so in this world as to learn in 
the present incarnation what it would take the pro- 
fane many incarnations to learn. Plato taught that 
it was the design of Initiation to restore the soul to 
that state from whence all fell, as from its native 
seat of perfection. And Epictetus taught that: 
^'Thus the Mysteries become useful, thus we seize 
the true spirit of them, when we begin to appre- 
hend that everything therein was instituted by the 
ancients for instruction and amendment of life." 

Allpersons who were candidates for Initiation into 
any of these Mysteries were required to produce 
evidence of their fitness by due inquiry into their 
previous life and character. The Eleu sinian stood 
open to none who did not approach the Gods with a 
pure and holy worship, which was originally an 
indispensible condition observed in common in all 
the Mysteries, and instituted by Bacchus or Osiris, 
himself who initiated none but virtuous and pious 
men, and it was required to have a prepared purity 
of mind and disposition, as previously ordered in 
the sacrifices, or in prayers, in approaching the 
Mysteries. 

It was Max MuUer who wrote that: "In the lan- 
guage of mankind, in which everything new is old^ 



INTRODUCTION 13 

and everything old is neiv, an inexhaustible mine 
has been discovered for researches of this kind. 
Language still bears the impress of the earliest 
thoughts of man; obliterated, it may be, buried 
under new thoughts, yet here and there still recov- 
erable in their sharp original outline. The growth 
of language is continuous, and by continuing our 
researches backward from the most modern to the 
most ancient strata, the very elements and roots of 
human speech have been reached, and with them 
the elements and roots of human thought. What 
lies beyond the beginnings of language, however 
interesting it may be to the physiologist, does not 
yet belong to the history of man, in the true and 
original sense of that word. 3Ian means the thinker, 
and the first manifestation of thought is speech. 

''But more surprising than the continuity of the 
growth of language is the continuity in the growth 
of religion. Of religion, as of language, it may be 
said that in it everything new is old^ and everything 
old is neiv, and that there has been no entirely new relig- 
ion since the beginning of the world. The elements and 
roots of religion were there as far hack as we can trace 
the history of man, and the history of religion, like 
the history of language, shows us throughout a 
succession of new combinations of the same radical 
elements. An Intuition of God, a sense of human 
weakness and dependence, a belief in the divine 
government of the world, a distinction between good 
and evil, and a hope for a better life — these are 
some of the radical elements of all religions. 
Though sometimes hidden, they rise again and 



14 INTRODUCTION 

again to the surface. Though frequently distorted, 
they tend again and again to their perfect form, 
though pJways under another name. 

St. Augustine himself, in accordance with this 
idea, said: '*What is now called the Christian relig- 
ion has existed among the ancients, and was not 
absent from the beginning of the human race, until 
Christ came in the flesh, from which time the relig- 
ion which existed already, began to be called 
Christian." 

As will be proven in the work now before the 
reader, that the underlying principles in all true 
religions or sects, is the Philosophy of Fire. No 
matter what the system may be, it is always the 
same. The very foundation of the Secret Doctrine 
and the Ancient Doctrine is the Philosophy of Fire 
— Love, In the work before the reader, quotations 
have been made from the Secret teachings of the 
greater sects of those Fraternities and Orders who 
were most instrumental in shaping the Religious 
beliefs of the people. The only one not so dealt 
with is Zoroaster. 

Before the time of Zoroaster the Persians, like 
the early Egyptians, worshipped in the open air, 
long after other nations had constructed temples, 
as they considered the broad expanse of heavens as 
the sublime covering of temples devoted to the wor- 
ship of Deity. Their places of sacrifice were much 
like those of the northern nations of Europe, com- 
posed of circles of upright stones, rough and 
unhewn. They abominated images, and worship- 
ped the Sun and Fire^ as Bep7^esentatwes of the Omni- 



INTRODUCTION iS 

present Deity, The Jews, even though they did not 
belong to the Inner Circle of any Order and thus 
only followed the exoteric religious ceremonies, 
were not exempt from the worship of Fire, saying, 
God appeared in the Cherubim, over the gate of 
Eden, as a Flaming Sword^ and to Abraham as Flame 
of Fire, to Moses as a Fire in the bush atHoreb, and 
to the whole assembly of the people at Sinai, when 
he descended upon the mountain in Fire. Moses 
himself told them that their God was a Consuming 
Fire, which was reechoed more than once, and thence 
the Jews were weak enough to worship the mater- 
ial substance, in lieu of the Invisible and Eternal 
God. Zoroaster succeeded in persuading them to 
enclose their sacred fire altars in covered towers, 
because, being on elevated and exposed hills, the 
fire was liable to be extinguished by storms. These 
were circular buildings, covered with domes, hav- 
ing small openings at the top to let out the smoke. 
... .A Jew entered a Parsee temiple and beheld 
the Sacred Fire. ''What," said he to the priest, 
"do you worship the fire?" "Not the fire," ans- 
wered the priest, ^^it is to us the emblem of the Sun 
andof his genial heat^^ "Do you then worship the 
sun as your God?" asked the Jew. "Know ye not 
that this luminary also is but a work of the Almighty 
Creator?" "We know it," replied the priest, "but 
the uncultivated man requires a sensible sign in 
order to form a conception of the Most High, and 
is not the sun, the incomprehensible source of light, 
an image of that invisible being who blesses and 
preserves all things?" "Do your people, then," 



16 INTRODUCTION 

rejoined the Israelite, "distinguish the type from 
the original? They call the sun their God, and, 
descending even from this to a baser object, they 
kneel before an earthly flame. Ye amuse the out- 
ward but blind the inward eye ; and while ye hold 
to them the earthly, ye draw from them the heav- 
enly Light! Thou shalt not make unto thyself any 
image or likeness." "How do you designate the 
Supreme Being?" asked the Par see. "We call him 
Jehovah Adonai; that is, the Lord who is, who was, 
and who will be," answered the Jew. "Your appel- 
lation is grand and sublime," said the Parsee, "but 
it is awful too." A Christian then drew nigh and 
said, "We call him Father." The Pagan and the 
Jew looked at each other and said, "Here is at once 
an image and a reality, it is a word of the heart." 
Therefore they all raised their eyes to Heaven, and 
said, with reverence and Love (Fire), "Our Father," 
and they took each other by the hand, and all three 
called one another "brother. " 

Thus, as has already been stated, the names of 
religious systems may be different, but the under- 
lying principle is ever the same. No matter what 
exoteric systems of religion may be studied, it will 
always be found that God is d^'' Consuming Firey 
In the teachings of the Ancient Mysteries this is 
much more true for the reason that in these Mys- 
teries we are taught what this living fire is. 

" Ever since the most ancient times Divine Wis- 
dom has taught the same doctrines through the 
mouths of the wise. Hermes Trismegistus, Con- 
fucius and Zoroaster, Buddha and Jesus the Christ, 



INTRODUCTION 17 

Plato and Socrates, Saint Martin and Jacob Boeli- 
men, Theophrastus ParacelsUvS, Cornelius Agrippa, 
Shakespeare and Shoppenhauer, P, B. Randolph 
and Freeman B. Dowd, and others have taught the 
same truths, more or less complete, because thej 
were all from the same school of philosophy. Each of 
these teachers clothed them in a form most suitable 
to his own understanding or adapted to the compre- 
hension of his disciples. 

No one can claim that any of these teachings are 
their own. The Christ said; ''The doctrines which 
I teach are 7iot my owri^hut it is the Truth which 
teaches them through me. He that teaches his own 
doctrines and theories speaketh of himself, he is 
acting under the impulse of earthly ambition and 
seeketh his own glory and not the glory of God, but 
he that seeks to glorify — not himself, but God — 
by giving expression to the truth of which he is 
conscious, is true, and no evil can be in him. Live 
so that you may knoio the truth; not by external appear- 
ances and argumentatiGn, but by itsoton inherent power. 
Be true, and you will know the truth. 

''The organism of ry?a?i,"he said, "resembles a 
kingdom, its capital is the Mind, and its temple the 
Soul. In that capital and temple there are many 
false prophets, as there are in Jerusalem. There 
are the Pharisees of sophistry and false, logic, cre- 
dulity, and scepticism, and the 'scribes' are the 
prejudices and erroneous opinions engrafted upon 
the memory. Do not listen to what these false 
prophets say, but listen to the voice of wisdom that 
speaks in your heart) iov verily I say unto you, the 



Ji IMTEODUGTIOM 

temple, built of speculations which the scribes hav© 
greeted, will be destroyed, and not one of the dog- 
fnas and theories of which it hag been constructed 
will remain, when the day of judgment appear^. 

**See the ti-uth enters your heart, bearing the 
palm leaf, the gymbol of peace. Let it abide in you, 
p,nd abide yourself in the truth. There i§ no other 
worship acceptable to the Uniyergal God, but to 
keep his conimandments, which he reveals to you 
through the power of Divine Wisdom, whose voice 
speaks in your Higher Oonsciousness. Love one 
another; and as you grow in unselfish love^ so will 
you grow in wisdom. 

Open your hearts and see the image of the true 
God within them. He is not to he found in mcin-made 
ohurches; aiid if any one tells you, Ohrist is in this 
ohuTch, or he i^ in that one, do not believe it, but seek 
for God witliin your ovjn lieart. Let not the Phari- 
sees and the scribes and the intellectual powers of 
your own mind mislead you, but listen to the divine 
voice of Intuition, which speaks at the center of 
your Soul.^' 

Tlius, Ohrist agrees with the fundamental doc- 
trine of the Higher Occult Science taught by our 
true Fraternities of the pregent day, i. e., that man 
is the product of his own thoughts, he is that which 
he makes himself by the way he thinks and acts, 
for his external form is nothing but an outward 
symbol of his internal character, modified by the 
want of plasticity of the gross matter composing 
his body, for gross matter is not sufficiently plastic 
to change in form as rapidly as his thoughts. The 



iJTTfiobucl'ie^ li 

fn?.tter composing tlie soul is* iiiofe plastic. If ouf 
thoughts are cotitinually low aiid vulgar^ it will be- 
come corresporiditigly degf aded, but if we are con- 
tinually thinking of a high Ideal, our Ideal will tak^ 
forffi loithin ourgeives. If we are satisfied with st 
belief in an historical Christ without seeking tc^ 
Cause ol' enable a Christ to grow luitliin ourselves ^^ 
such a belief will not be merely useless, but it will 
be an impediment in our way to perfection. 

IPhe object of the Higher Occult Science ; the An- 
cient Mysteries; the Secret Doctrines; of true Ini-^ 
tiation^ and of all True Religion is one and the same 
thifig, i. e., to ennoble mankind and to awaken mei4 
to a realization of the divinity of the Spirit within 
themselves. Religion rn its theoretical aspect means 
a feal knowledge of the relations which exist be- 
tween nian and the external Source from which his 
Spirit emanated iii the begiiiliing, religion in it^ 
practical aspect means the iiiiioti of man with God, — • 
a uiiion that caiinot be effected throtigh the extern 
iial intetference of permission of a clergyman, but 
must be effected by the power of the IMernal loilli 
There is no real JcnoiMedge to be attained bi/ merely learn- 
ing a theory^ there is no real Imowledge unless the theory 
is confirmed by practice^ 

This knovvledge is acquired Mither by the study^ 
of theology aiid philosophy, nor by moralizing. If 
does not depend on any theoretical infof matioii iii 
regard to terfestial of celestial things, nof can spif'- 
itual regeneration be attained by leading a vif tuOti^ 
life for fear of the consequences that are likely t^ 
follow if we indulge in evil^ it can only be acq^uirM 



20 INTRODUCTION 

by a realization of the truth within (mv own selves. 
There is nothing to prevent any man from arriving 
at such a realization, except the lower tendencies 
of his mortal nature. The process of spiritual 
regeneration or Initiation, therefore involves a con- 
tinual battle with the lower self, and unceasing 
fight between spiritual aspirations and earthly 
desires, in which the Spirit must gain the victory 
over Matter. 

All the boasted knowledge of the science learned 
m schools contains no ?^6a^ knowledge whatever. It 
knows nothing of absolute truth. It is merely rela- 
tive knowledge, and refers to the relations which 
external objects bear to each other, and all this 
knowledge, however useful it may be as long as we 
live in this world of external illusions and ''objec- 
tive hallucinations," will be entirely useless to us 
when we enter that state in which those illusions 
do not exist. The only true science^ which is really 
useful to us in time and eternity^ in our present con- 
dition, not less than in the hereafter, is the practical 
knowledge of the regeneration of man. 

If the reader will carefully note all words and 
sentences that appear in italics, he or she will get a 
far better understanding than could otherwise be 
had. 

Throughout the work, authors quoted from have 
not been given credit, because it has been my desire 
to bring forth a work, giving the teachings of the 
Masters without any interruptions. The authors 
quoted from are Dr. Paschal Beverly Randolph; 
Dr. Frantz Hartmann; Dr. J. D. Buck; Hargrave 



INTRODUCTION 21 

Jennings ; E. Shure, and Dr. P. H. Phelon. Each 

one of these great teachers has been of as great 
importance to this work as has the other and equal 
credit is therefore due to them all. 

If the work will be the means of opening the eyes 
of a few and influence them to try and ''find their 
own Soul," I shall be well satisfied. 

THE COMPILER. 



The Ancient Mysteries. 



THE belief in a Supreme Power is inherent in 
every human being; and, so thoroughly 
interwoven with our nature is this sentiment, that 
it is impossible for anyone, at any period of lifej 
wholly to divest himself of it. 

*' When the reflecting man looks around upon all 
the objects about him, the question naturally arises ; 
'Wha.t has called this world into existence? Wliy 
does it exist, and what is its ultimate destiny? 
Why do I exist, and what will become of me after 
death? The a^nswers to these questions can only 
be given by and through a long course of Philoso- 
phical investigation. It is these questions that 
have been the study of the ablest men from the 
earliest ages, and have given rise to all the various 
systems of philosophy and religion, which have pre^ 
vailed in all times, beginning with the first man, 
and coming down to our ov^n day and generation; 

*'0f one thing we are certain, the first religion 
that we ha.ve any account of, was far superior to 
any of those formulated in late centuries / refer 
to the Philosophy of the Atlantiaiis. Theirs was the 
Pure Fire Philosophy, and not onlj was it a pure 
and absolute religion but, at the same time^ it gave 
them the power that true religion should give to its 
Masters. This the Fire Philosophy of the Atiaii- 
tians did, and we find, throughout aU ages, that 



24 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

those Philosophies, under whatever name, y/hich 
were founded on the Fire Philosophy, always gave 
this power to its Initiates. It is only with these 
Philosophies that I will deal at the present and set 
forth the history, in compact form, of those sj^s- 
tems of Philosophy which worshipped at the Shrine 
of Fire — Love, and believed this to be all potent. 
The Philosophers of these systems do not worship 
the Fire as the profane suppose, hut they take Fire 
as a symbol of that Supreme Poiver ivhich they believe in 
and Know to be all powerful and Absolute, 

An author has said: "It is to be presumed that 
when the minds of men were directed to the sub- 
ject of the mysterious things of nature which they 
could not apprehend, they were forced to conceal 
their ignorance of the ultimate causes for all the 
phenomena by which they were constantly sur- 
rounded, and as constantly ceJled upon to explain, 
that then, as well as at present, their inventive tal- 
ents were exercised to conceal their ignorance by 
systems of terminology." This is not true, the 
Mj^steries did not have their origin in such a man- 
ner, but rather, because men who were Masters of 
these Mysteries, knew that it would not do to let 
the masses know the true meaning of these mys- 
teries and therefore invented symbols and ceremo- 
nies in order to teach those who were prepared to 
know the truth. 

'' It is, however, conceded that the rites and cere- 
monies were originally of a pure character and had 
a tendency to impress the minds of the Initiates 
with a suitable feeling of awe and reverence for the 



THE PHIL OS OP HY OF FIRE 25 

society, and to benefit their lives in all particulars-. 

An author who claims to be an authorit^T- on the 
subject, has said: "It is impossible to definitely 
assert in what country the Mysteries were first 
introduced. Authors differ very materially upoii 
that question. It is, however, very certain that 
while there are various changes to be found in the 
Mysteries of the different nations of the Orient, it 
is also as certain that there was a great similarity 
in them all ; so much so that we mxay conclude that 
either they were all independent copies from a 
great original system, or that they were propaga- 
ted one from, another, until they were spread over 
the whole of Asia, Europe, and that part of Africa, 
peopled from Asia and inconstantintercoursethere- 
with. The fixrst wave from that region, now known 
as Arya Varta, was to the Southeast, and across 
the grea.t rivers, and into that part of India where 
they found a people descended from the Turanian 
families, v/ho had come from the north and north- 
east. We are informed that, when the Ayybjis en- 
tered the country of India, they carried with them 
traditions, manners, and customs, and religious 
ideas, which differed ver;/ materially from those 
possessed by the first inhabitants, who w^ere, no 
doubt, of Turanian descent." 

The author is mista^ken in some respects. We 
7c7ioiv absolutely that these mysteries came from 
Atlantis and that initiation into these Mysteries 
were first had there. We kridiv that in the Temples 
of Atlantis these Mysteries were first taught to the 
Neox^hytes and we knoiv that these Mysteries werfe 



26 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

brought into Asia and India and later, into Egypt, 
by the Initiates of Atlantis. These things we of 
the Ancient Orders know from records now in our 
hands and hidden in our Sacred and Secret 
Archives. 

The author may well say that it is very certain 
that while there are various changes to be found in 
the Mysteries of the different nations of the Orient, 
it is also as certeJn that there was a great similarity 
in them all. Why should they not be alike in their 
spirit if not entirely in ttieir form since they are 
all from the same tree? True, changes have been 
made in both form and name, but this has onlv 
been done in order to meet the demands of the 
time. All Orders founded on the Fire Philosophy 
come from one great tree, and it has been found 
that in their spirit they are the same, simply exist- 
ing under different names, the same as the Order 
now known as the Rosy Cross was once known as 
the Paracelsians. It is ever the same Order under 
a different name. Truly Shakespeare said that a 
Rose was just as prettj^ under another name. 

The Great Lodge of the Magi, the Adepts, and 
the Perfect Masters, known and designated also by 
many other names, has never for a moment ceased 
to exist; this Lodge has often, though secret and 
unknown, shaped the course of the very empires 
and controlled the fate of Nations. France and Na- 
poleon Marleon is a good example, for without Wiq 
Secret Lodge Np.poleon could never have been the 
mightj^ Master he was. 

These Adepts and Masters, knowing always the 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 27 

line of least resistance, and when and how to act, 
and having always in vi^w only one object, i.e., the 
Progress of Humanity and the Universal Brother- 
hood of Man; despising fame and worldly honors, 
and working ''without the hope of fee or reward.'' 
they have concealed their labors, and either influ- 
enced those who knew them, not to do their work, 
or worked through agents pledged to conceal their 
very existence. 

As these lines are being penned, the news comes 
before the world that peace has been declared be- 
tween Japan and Russia, at the same time, there 
comes a letter from one of the truly great on earth 
and in which are found these lines: ''Looking at 
these principle events of today, the concluding of 
peace between Japan and Russia, I am given to 
know, that the Great White Brotherhood is the real 
Peace-maker and that President Roosevelt is their 
Instrument," 

To the public generally, this may be a m.atter of 
little interest or impoitance, as thecharacter of the 
work done must be the sole criterion by which that 
work is to be measured. To the Mystics and Initi- 
ates, it should be of interest, as showing what it is 
to be, indeed, a Master of the Brotherhood. It will 
reveal to them the meaning and goal of human evo- 
lution, and give them the unqualified assurance 
that that evolution is being aided hy those who Jcnoiv, 
as it has not been for many centuries. Such work 
has now become possible, because of a cycle of lib- 
erality and enlightenment, when the workers are 
not likely to be sacrificed by an Inquisition, although 



28 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

they may be persecuted for their teachings. Such 
Masters do exist, and they are truly possessed of 
profound knoY/ledge, they are ready to help the 
world, but the world must be ready and willing to 
receive such help, if it is to be benefited by it. It 
must not stand ready to destroy both the teachings 
and its agents. Guided by a complete Philosophy; 
armed with a key to Symbolism, and aided by these 
Masters, the Lost Mysteries may be restored and 
made to tell their story for the benefit of the com- 
ing race. 

Mere vulgar curiosity and secrecy alone have 
never, and will never be the password to the adytum 
of real Initiation. It will take something more than 
curiosity to find the Gate to the Path that leads to 
the true Initiation. It will take a heart that throbs 
for the welfare of humanity. A Love for a Univer- 
sal Brotherhood of Man. He alone who seeks In- 
itiation because he desires to help his fellow man 
can ever hope to be admitted to the Path. 

An history of those who have become Initiates 
would necessarily be tinged with a touch of pathos, 
on account of the many sorrowful disappointments 
it would have to record, in the case of earnest souls 
peeking, with sincerity and in truth, for the "Lost 
Word of the Master," (the finding of the Christ), 
only to be publicly executed as malefactors and ene- 
mies of State or Church as most of them have been 
in the past. None have sought Initiation in Love 
but that they have found the Path and the Christ. 
That such organizations and Masters should exist 
through all time and yet be without a history seems 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 29 

at first a strange paradox. The enemies of Mystir 
cism and Philosophy will urge this fact as a reason 
for rejecting all that is herein contained, ignorant 
of the fact that few histories of any people or any 
epoch are better founded. Foremost among these 
detractors or deniers will be found the bigoted sec- 
tarian and the modern materialist. ¥/ith each of 
these, the real genius of Mysticism, is in perpetual 
conflict. For the first, the universal and unquali- 
fied Brotherhood of Man, is a dead letter, for he 
believes that only himself and his chosen associates 
can be saved. For the second, the materialist, the 
recognition of the Divine Principle in Man, and be^ 
lief in the Immortahty of the Soul, will prove an 
equal stumbling block. Fortunately, the number 
of bigoted sectarians and out-and-out materialists 
is few but those few seem to be in authority and 
able to persecute all those who may not be of their 
way of thinking. The historical deficiency referred 
to is by no means without a paralleL That super- 
structure known as Christianity has, it is true^ 
many historical phases ; of dogmas the m.ost contra- 
dictory; of doctrines promulgated in one age, and 
enforced with vice-regal authority, and severe pen- 
alties for denial and disbelief, only to be denied and 
repudiated as ''damnable heresy" in another age. 
In the meantime, the origin of these doctrines and 
the personality of the Man of Sorroivs around which 
these traditions cluster receive no adequate sup^ 
port from authentic history. 

Because there is no true history of the Christ to 
be had, or because orthodox Churchanity has not 



30 THE PHILOSOPHY OB* FtUM 

been able to produce such a Ms^torj Of wboffi they 
make pretensions of following^ btit wbota tBey have 
never really Jcnoivn, must we conclude that it is all 
a fable, that there was no Jesus of Nazareth, but 
that it was put forth and kept alive by designing' 
men, to support their pretensions to authority? 
Are historical facts and personal bic^raphy alone 
entitled to credit? While everlasting prineiples^^ 
Divine Beneficence, and the laying down of one'^ 
life for another are of no account? Is that which 
has inspired the hope and brighteneei the lives of 
the down-trodden and despairing for ages a meref 
fancy, a designing lie? Tear every shred of history 
from the life of the Christ, today, and prove beyond 
all controversy that he never existed, a^d Humani- 
ty, from its heart of hearts, would create him again 
tomorrow and justify the creation by every intui- 
tion of the human soul and by every need of the 
dptily life of man. The historical contention might 
be given up, ignored, and the whole character, gen- 
ius and mission of Jesus, the Christ, be none the less 
real, beneficent, and eternal, with all of its human 
and dramatic episodes. Explain it as you will it 
can never be explained away; the character remains; 
and whether Historical or Ideal, it is real and eter- 
7iaL The Christ was no myth. 

This digression serves to illustrate a principle of 
Interpretation. The Traditions and Symbols of 
Mysticism and the Philosophy of Fire do not derive 
their real value fi'om historical data, but from the 
universal and eternal truths which they embody, and all 
Orders and Fraternities are founded on these symbols of 



THE PHII.OSOPHY OF FIRE SI 

My^tieism and there is no Order, Masonry not excepted, 
but that is founded on the Philosophy of the Living Fire, 
Witliout Love no Ch^der could exist Love is the only 
bond tfmt can hind men Eternally together. Were 
they historical episodes only, the world in its cyclic 
revolutions would long ago have swept by them and 
buried them in Eternal oblivion. They are facts, 
imparted by Initiate to Initiate, from time out of 
memw^y, until the pi^esent time. These great truths, 
obscured and lost in one age by misinterpretation 
or persecution, rise. Phoenix-like, rejuvenated in 
the next, I should not say lost, they are simply 
held in the secret Archives of the great Orders to 
be given out again when the time is ripe. They are 
immortal truths, knowing neither decay nor death. 
They are like Divine Images concealed in a block of 
stone, which many artists assail with mallet and 
chisel, square and compass, only, perchance, to re- 
lease a distorted idol. Only the Master workman, 
the Adept, can so chip away the stone as to reveal 
in all its grandeur and beauty the divine ideal, and 
endow it with the breath of life. Such is the builder 
of character. Ceremonial Initiation will never make 
either a Master or an Adept. Any man or set of 
men can carry on Ceremonial Initiation. No Mas- 
ter can be made in this way. It takes a Master to 
take man in his crude or materialistic state, and 
make a Master out of him, and this can only be 
done by a process of growth and a rigid system of 
training. 

No genuine Mystic, imbued with the spirit of lib- 
erality, and aU Mystics are liberal, wiU treat any 



82 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

religion with derision or contempt, or exclude from 
fellowship any Brother w^ho believes in the exis- 
tence of God, the Urjiversal Brotherhood of Man, 
and the Immortality of the Soul. This spirit is the 
very foundation of Mysticism, and any departure 
from it is un-Mystical and directly against the 
spirit of Universal Brotherhood. True Mysticism 
has, for ages, held aloft the torch-light of Toleration, 
Equity, and Fraternity. The bigoted sectarian, who- 
ever he may be, divides the world into two classes ; 
those who, with zeal and blind faith, accept his dog- 
mas and those who do not. The first he calls **broth- 
er,''and the second class he regards as enemies 
w^ho must be persecuted. Mysticism, no matter 
what the school, while adopting no religion and no 
form of doctrine or creed, as such, or as formula- 
ted by any one religion, recognizes certain basic 
principles embodying the ethics taught in all relig- 
ions. No religion., no matter lioiv fanatical it may be, 
L'ould exist unless there was some truth in it. Every 
Mystic formulates his own creed to suit himself and 
according to the Light tmthin his Soul, and may 
Institute such forms of worship, /or himself, as may 
seem to him desirable or beneficient. As he grows 
in wisdom he will give up the old forms for others 
until at last, he will worship at the very throne of the 
Living Fire — Love — God, 

The distinction between the esoteric and exoteric 
doctrines was always and from the very earliest 
times preserved among the Initiates. It came from 
Atlantis up to the time of Alexander and after that 
they resorted for instructions, dogmas, and mys" 



THE PHILOSOPHY OP PIRE 33 

teries, to all the schools; to those of Egypt, and 
Asia, as well as those of ancient Thrace, Sicily, 
Etruria, and other countries. 

The real source from whence the Ancient Wis- 
dom came was Atlantis, thence to Egj^pt and old 
India, the Mother of Civilizations and Religions, 
and the esoteric or concealed wisdom. 

The most profound secrets of Mysticism are not 
revealed or taught in any Ceremonial Initiation. 
They belong only to a few. These secrets must be 
sought by the individual himself, and the Neophyte 
is debarred from possessing them solely by his own 
inattention to the hints everywhere given by the 
Masters of the Fraternities. If he prefers to treat 
the whole subject with contempt, and to deny that 
any such real knowledge exists, it becomes evident 
th8.t he not only closes the door against the possi- 
bility of himself possessing such knowledge, but he 
also becomes impervious of any evidence of its exis- 
tence that might come to him at any time. He has 
no one but himself to blame if he is left in darkness. 
"Seek and ye shall find, Knock and it shall be 
opened unto you." 

*' So long as the struggle for bare existence in- 
volves, as it does today, the greater part of the 
energy, time, and opportunities of man, he will 
never discover the real meaning of Life, or the pur- 
pose of human existence. Even this much may be 
discerned from physical evolution alone ; from the 
study of the human brain, in which there is a con- 
tinually increasing portion of gray substance set 
free from the functions incident to the preserva- 



V 



84 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

tion of the physical structure, and evidently de- 
signed to be appropriated to separate and Higher 
use. Mere intellectual activities alone, connected 
with the physical plane, with the maintenance and 
enjoyment of life will not explain the philosophy of 
cerebral development. It is largely for this reason 
that the offices of the encephalon are so little 
known today. 

There are latent 'powers and almost infinite capa- 
bilities in man, the meaning of which he has hardly 
dreamed of possessing. Nor will leisure and intel- 
lectual cultivation alone reveal these powers. It is 
only through a complete philosophy of the entire 
nature of man and the capacities and destiny of the 
human soul supplemented by the use of such knowl- 
edge, that man will eventually come into possession 
of his birthright and begin the journey to perfec- 
tion. It is the work of the Masters to show man 
the Path to such development and the Masters of 
all ages and Fraternities have faithfully performed 
this great work. 

Two conditions at the present time stand squarely 
in the way of such achievements : first, anarchy and 
confusion, the result of selfishness in all social 
relations. This condition can be overcome in but 
one way, viz: by the recognition of the unqualified 
Brotherhood of Man; not as a theory, a religious 
duty, or a mere matter of sentiment; but as a fact 
in nature; a Universal and Divine Law; the penalty 
for the violation of which is precisely the conditions 
under which humanity now struggles and suffers. 

The second condition, which has given rise to 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 35 

'^Confusion among the Workmen "in building the 
socieJ temple and the individual habitation of man, 
is false ideals; inefficient methods of education; and 
almost total ignorance of the existence and the 
nature of the Soul. The result of this ignorance 
may be seen in the fact, that not one individual in a 
million who has both leisure and opportunity^ 
makes any real advancement in the evolution of the 
higher powers or is even cognizant of the fact that 
he is a living soul. 

These things ought not to be so, nor need they 
longer be, if earnest men and women would seek 
diligently, first for the cause of all our ills, and 
second, for a sufficient remedy. This remedy is to 
be found., first, in Jcnoivledge. Second, in service of 
the Truth. 

If real knowledge of the nature of the Soul and 
the destiny of man had never existed, our present 
condition would be pitiable in the extreme; but 
when we demonstrate that this knowledge once 
existed, that it still exists, and that it always ex- 
isted, even though only in the Secret Archives of 
the Orders, that it was first degraded by selfishness 
and then lost by design, and that for centuries 
designing Priests, many of whom would have dis-^ 
graced a scaffold, but who have been canonized as 
saints, have done their utmost to deprive humanity 
of this knowledge, what shall humanity say? Shall 
he preach Universal Brotherhood and Toleration^ 
and yet seek revenge on the priesthood? A thous- 
and times, no! but rather leave priest and prole-- 
tariat to settle their own affairs and go their own 



36 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

way, and go to work ourselves to recover the lost 
knowledge^ and when recovered devote it absolutely 
to Humanity. Knowing these things as we do, can 
we condemn the Arch Fraternities who have ever 
been the guardians of this Secret Knowledge? 
Should we not rather be thankful to them for keep- 
ing it in its virgin purity? In all our popular pres- 
ent religious instructions, from childhood, and 
through all the ministrations of religion in after 
life, we are taught to look very sharp after the sal- 
vation of our souls ; and this in \hQ face of the state' 
ment that a very large proportion of the human 
race will eventually be utterly lost, or damned, for 
all eternity! Science (?) completes the picture by 
trying to demonstrate that the struggle for exist- 
ence is a necessary condition for all improvements; 
and that only the sharpest tooth and longest claw 
can survive. The ideal thus held aloft by both 
religion and science, of the present time, is pure 
selfishness. Self-preservation is regarded as the 
^' First Law of Life,'^^ The result is Materialism in 
the strictest and broadest sense, and this has para- 
lyzed wheie it has not utterly destroyed, all higlier 
ideals. ¥/Tiat are the results? In Science it leads 
to the horrible crime of Vivisection, with its Serum 
Therapy and demand for human beings for exper- 
iment, and in Religion we have a pure materialism. 
Man for himself, while the Law teaches us to givQ 
life and thereby wm it. 

Is it not reasonable to suppose that if humanity 
were possessed of real knowledge it might govern 
its actions, and so shape their lives as to avoid the 



THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 37 

pitialls of ignorance, and set its feet on the line of 
the Higher Evolution? Religion, true religion, that 
which comes from the hee,rt, offers Faith, and in 
Faith ail things are possible. Such religion is pure 
Mysticism. 

There is but one source of real knowledge, viz; 
Mysticism a,nd Philosophy. The twain are one, and 
these have taken their rise directly, from the An- 
cient Mysteries. The Universal Brotherhood of 
Man must be, and is, the only basis of true Ethics, 
and the Great Republic is the Ideal State. If these 
concepts were accepted and acted upon, there would 
result, time, opportunity, a.nd the power to appre- 
hend the deeper and higher problems of the origin, 
nature, Pvnd destiny of man. "Man is not man as 
yet, and will not be until he has found his Soul." 
What he may be or vvhat he might do, under favor- 
able conditions, is very seldom dreamed of by 
humanity and is only shown to us by the lives of 
the few Masters. 

There is a widespread and increasing conviction 
that true Education would prove a panacea for all 
our evils ; and that if we could begin with the train- 
ing of children, we could eventually reform society, 
even the children of vicious parentage might be 
reformed. 

This is true but it will not be enough to follow the 
lines of education as at present used. We must 
have a real, an Higher education, the education of 
the Soul. The bringing out of the Highest in man. 
Only by teaching the child the truth, not as sup- 
posed to be by material or theological educators, 



$8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

but as the Soul teaches man what is right. Selfish- 
ness or material gain, is the key-note of the present 
day education and it is for this reason that it has 
failed so miserably. Nothing so shrouds the Higher 
Belf (the Soul) in man as selfishness, and this is the 
reason why so few persons are possessed of the 
direct perception. What is true, is True, and what 
5s false, is False. 

It is this Higher knowledge toward which all use- 
ful and rational acquirement tends ; and why should 
our eiforts cease short of the very Highest? All 
education that does not tend in this direction, with 
the final goal consistently and continually in view, 
is false, and is necessarily a failure. This Higher 
knowledge or Philosophy, is a knowledge of the 
Soul; of its origin, nature, powers, and the laws 
that govern its evolution; and this is precisely the 
knowledge which modern science fails to afford, but 
which Ancient Science taught in the Mysteries of 
Antiquity which was nothing short of the Philoso- 
phy of the Living Fire (Soul). All preliminary 
^tudy and training led up to this — '*The real meas- 
ure of a man. " Just as all life is an evolution, so is 
all real knowledge or Philosophy an Initiation ; and 
it proceeds in a Natural order, and advances by 
specific *' degrees." These "degrees" are now 
materiahzed in the Modern Masonic Fraternity, an 
Order that has all the material and hidden wisdom 
of the Mysteries of Antiquity, but which has lost 
the key, excepting in a few instances. In the true 
Initiation, the candidate must always be worthy and 
well qualified, duly and truly prepared. That is, 



THE P £[ I L 6 S OP H Y 6 IB" F I H £ 89 

he must perceive that such knowledge exists; must 
desire to possess it, and must be wiUing to make 
whatever personal sacrifice is necessary for its 
acquirement. He must have passed beyond the 
stage of blind belief or superstition ^ the bondage of 
fear, the age of fable, and the dominion of appetite 
and sense. This is the meaning of being ''duly and 
truly prepared." He must have proved his fitness 
in these directions, no less than the absence in him 
of that subtler form of intellectual selfishness which 
comes from the possession of knowledge, and th6 
desire for dominion through it over others less 
highly endowed, for selfish purposes of his own* 
His motive, therefore, alone, can determine that he 
is ''worthy and well qualified." 

It is true on every plane of life, that in the pro- 
cess by which knowledge is acquired — always by 
experience — man becomes the thing which he 
knows. That is, knov/ing is a progressive becoming; 
There results, therefore, a continuous transforma- 
tion of the motives, ideals, and perceptions of the 
individual, whenever in his daily experience in life 
he is placed on the lines of least resistance or the 
Natural Order of Evolution. This is the really Sci- 
entific and Philosophical meaning of all true 
Initiation. 

There is, at present, so much of the commonplace 
that passes as knowledge, and which is accepted as 
such by worthy, though unthinking students, and 
this is so utterly void of comprehension, that 
unless one is familiar with this line of thought h^ 
wiU not really see the truth and bearing of the 



40 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

statement, that man always becomes that which he 
really knows. Here lies the reason why the mere 
inculcation of moral precepts so often fails entirely 
in transforming character ; and w^hy there is so 
much lip-service. When men once understand this, 
then they will understand the Mystery of Alchemy, 
the Transformation or Transmutation of baser 
metals into the pure and shining gold. For once 
they understand, once the Conscience has become 
awakened and they have learned to know, then they 
will have become, for in the process of truly learning 
to know, they will have become. 

Conscience is the struggle of the understanding 
in assimilating experience ;it is the effort of the indi- 
vidual to adjust precept with practice, or in other 
words, Conscience is that living, active process, 
resulting in the growth of the Soul, and in the 
increase of man's power to apprehend the truth. 
Thus, while he is learning he is avotually growing or 
Transmuting, and the process will be finished ere 
he knows it. 

In the Ancient Mysteries, Life presented itself 
to the candidate or Neophyte, as a problem to be 
solved, and not as certain propositions to be memo- 
rized and as easily forgotten. The solution of this 
problem constituted all genuine Initiation, and at 
every step or ''degree" the problem expanded. 
For this reason was ''Man, Jcnoiv thy self ^^ written 
above the door of every temple of Initiation. As 
the vision of the Neophyte enlarged in relation to 
the problems and meaning of life, his powers of 
apprehension and assimilation also increased pro- 



thS philosophy op fire 4i 

portionately. This was also an evolution. The 
lower degrees of such Initiation concerned the 
ordinary p.ffairs of life, viz : a knowledge of the laws 
and processes of external nature; the Neophyte's 
relation to these through his physical body, and his 
relations, on the physical plane, through his Pvniinal 
senses and social instincts, to his fellow men. 
These things being learned, not memorized, the 
Neophyte passed on to the next degree. He here 
learned the nature of his Soul: the process of its 
evolution, and began to unfold those finer instincts 
that have been so often referred to in works dealing 
with Initiation. If he was found capable of under- 
standing these, and kept his vow in the preceding 
degrees, he presently discovered the evolution 
icithin him of senses and faculties pertaining to the 
''soul-plane." His progress would be instantly 
arrested, and his teachers would refuse all further 
instructions, if he was found negligent of the ordi- 
nary duties of life ; those to his family, his neigh- 
bors, or his country. All these must have been 
fully discharged before he could stand upon the 
threshold of the Greater Mysteries ; for in these he 
came to be an unselfish servant to Humanity as a 
whole; and no longer the right to bestow the gifts 
of knowledge or power that he possessed, upon his 
own kinsmen, or friends, in preference to strangerSi 
In the higher degrees, he might be precluded from 
using these powers even to preserve hig own lifes 
Both the Master and his powers belongs to Hu^ 
manity. If the reader will but considei* how the 
Jews called upon the Christ to "save himself and 



42 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

come down from the cross," if he were the Christ, 
it may be seen that this doctrine of Supreme Self- 
ishness ought, long ago, to have been apprehended 
by the Christian world; for while it is a Divine 
Attribute, the Synonym of the Christ, it is latent 
in all humanity, and must be evolved as herein 
given. 

That which makes such an evolution seem to 
modern readers impossible, is, that it cannot be 
conceived as being accomplished in a single life, nor 
c§jPLib^^^ It is the result of persistent effort ^«ded 
b^ High Ideals throu gh many li ve^ Miose who 
deny Pre-exist^nce may logicaffy 3ehy all such evo- 
lution. There must, however, come a time when 
the consummation is reached in one life; and this 
is the logical meaning of the saying of the Christ 

At this day, even many of those who have not the 
honor to belong to any of the Higher Secret Fra- 
ternities, know that there was both an exoteric and 
an esoteric doctrine with the early Christians ; that 
the esoteric doctrines were communicated orally in 
the Mysteries of Initiation; and that these Mys- 
teries conformed to and were originally derived 
from those of the so-called Pagan world. The Mys- 
teries of Christ received a new interpretation after 
the first Nicene Council, and as the Church sought 
dominion, it lost the Great^ Sepx^t, and since then 
has denied that it ever existed, and has done all in its ! 
power to obliterate all its records and monuments. 

That this is absolutely true, we can prove, not 
alone by the Secret Manuscripts which we, of these 



THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 43 

Orders hold, but by history. TertuUian, who died 
about A- D. 216, says in his apology: '*None are 
admitted to the religious Mysteries without an oath 
of Secrecy. We appeal to your Thracian and Eleu- 
sinian Mysteries ; and we are specially bound to 
this caution, because if we prove faithless, we 
should not only provoke Heaven, but draw upon our 
headg the utmost rigor of human displeasure." 

Archelaus, Bishop of Oascara in Mesopotamia, 
the year 278, said: *'These mysteries the church 
now communicates to him who has passed through 
the introductory degree. These are not explained 
to the Gentiles at all; nor are they taught in the 
hearing of the Catechumens, but much that is spo- 
ken is in disguised terms, that the Faithful, who 
possess the knowledge, may be still more informed, 
and those who are not acquainted with it may suffer 
no disadvantage." 

The Council of Nice had not taken these Secret 
Fraternities into consideration, nor did they know 
much of these Fraternities. They had knowledge 
of such Orders but were under the impression that 
they were only for the purpose of Pagan Initiations. 
They did not know that these Orders had records 
that would be handed down from Initiate to Initi- 
ate for all times to come, and that the Keys to these 
Sacred Mysteries could never be lost to these Fra- 
ternities. Had they known of this, they might 
have made different changes. Again, we find that 
St. Basil, the great Bishop of Caesarea, says : 

*'We receive the dogmas transmitted to us by 
writing, and those which have descended to us from 



44 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRIE 

the Ar ostles, and beneath the Mystery of Oral tra- 
ditioE ; for several things have been ha^nded to us 
without v^riting, lest the vulgar, too lamiliar v^ith 
our dogmas, should lose a due respect for them. 
This is v^hat the UninUiated are not permitted to 
contemplate; and how should it ever be proper to 
write and circulate among the people an account 
of them." 

The men who composed the Council of Nice knew 
that there were those, Priests, who claimed to know 
these Secret Mysteries but they were called more 
mad than anything else, exactly as our Churchmen 
think of the greater Mystics of our day. 

The Universal Science and the Sublime Philoso- 
phy, once taught by the Atlantians, later in the 
Greater Mysteries of Egypt, India, Chaldea, Asia 
and Persia, and among many other nations of antiq- 
uity, is neither known to Modern Christianity, Ma- 
sonry or any of the other Exoteric Orders. They 
may be Initiators of Ceremonial degrees but the 
Mystic Fraternities alone have preserved the Key 
to these Initiations and have kept the teachings in 
their purity. 

The Ancient Mysteries, or Mysteries of Antiq- 
uity were first taught in the Temples of Atlantis and 
spread from thence as has already been stated. 
These Mysteries were taught, under ma.ny different 
names, up to the time of the Initiation of Christ into 
the Essenian Order or Fraternity. After this date 
they naturally took the name of Christian Mys- 
teries. For the very reason that Christ was one of 
their Arch-Initiates. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 4S 

In the year 525, B. C; Cambj^ces, called *'the 
mad," led an army into Egypt, overran the country^ 
destroj^ed its cities, palaces and temples, scattered 
its Priest-Initiates (pJl Priests of the temples "were 
not only Initiates into these Vysteries, but were 
Masters since they were the appointed teachers of 
the Neophytes), and reduced the country to a Per* 
sian province. Many of its priests took refuge in 
Greece, and conveyed thither the Egyptian Mys- 
teries (these Mysteries should really have been 
called the Atlantian Mysteries), which Pythagoras 
bad journeyed to Egypt to obtain half a century 
earlier. In the time of Plato, a century later, the 
Mysteries were in a flourishing condition, and in. 
them he learned his sublime Philosophy. At the 
beginning of the Christian era, the mysteries werd 
known only to the Initiates and Priests and the 
masses were in ignorance as to their existence. 
There remained, at the time, the Essenian Ordei^ 
and also the Gnostics, the latter being an Inner 
Circle of the Essenes. The Therapeutiae of Alex^ 
andria was simply another name for a Circle of the 
Essenian Fraternity. Today the Order then known 
as the Essenes is known as the Fraternity of the 
Rosy Cross. There has never been any interrup- 
tion of the Secret Order. It has changed its name 
many times since it was founded on the Atlantis^ 
but its teachings are the same. Thus, from thes^ 
Orders the Christian Mysteries were derived and 
are preserved in the Secret Archives of all true 
Occult Orders, known only to the Initiates of the 
Higher Degrees. The Neoplatonists, headed by 



46 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

Ammonius Saccus, undertook to preserve tlie primi- 
tive relation, and the utterances of the Christian 
Bishops to which reference has been made, shov^ 
how the Secret Doctrine was adopted from the ear- 
her mysteries by the primitive Christirms during 
the first three centuries of our era. After the first 
Council of Nice, A. D., 325, which was presided over 
by none other than Exoteric Christians looking for 
power and authority, little more was heard of the 
earlier doctrines, and with the burning of the Great 
Library of Alexandria, Catholic supremacy and the 
dark ages obliterated the primitive Vv^isdom of West- 
ern Europe, so far as the masses were concerned, 
as it was overrun by hordes of Barbarians from the 
north. The principal seats of learning were the 
convents. Coming now to the dawn of the 16th 
century, and the greatest Protestant and Rosicru- 
cian Reformation, we find Johann Trithemius, Ab- 
bott of St. Jacob, at ¥/urtzburg, celebrated as one 
of the greatest Alchemists and Adepts; and Cor- 
nelius Agrippus and Paracelsus were his pupils. 
We must not forget Christian Rosencreutz, the Re- 
founder of the Rosicrucian Fraternity, and the pow- 
erful influence his works had on the reformation of 
those times. John Reuchlin, a famous Kabalist, of 
that time, and counted as one of the most learned 
men of his day in Europe, was the friend and pre- 
ceptor of Luther, and Luther's first public utter- 
ances were a course of lectures on the Philosophy 
of Aristotle. What effect the Rosicrucian Reforma- 
tion had on Luther is not positively known. How- 
ever we do know that Luther used as his private 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 47 

seal the Rose and the Cross. A strong effort was 
made to revive the Ancient Wisdom among those 
outside of the Inner Circle 'of the Secret Fraterni- 
ties, but the age was too gross and superstitious, 
and the reformation resulted in centuries of blind 
belief, and the suppression of the Secret Doctrine. 
However, the Universal Reformation had accom- 
plished one of its purposes, it had drawn to itself 
those who were truly ready to be received by the 
Mighty Secret Fraternity. Our records show us 
that this is an absolute fact. 

Students should always bear In mind the fact 
that in all the truly Secret Fraternities, there has 
always been, and will ever be, an Exoteric portion 
given out to the world, to the Vnitiated, and an Eso- 
teric portion reserved for the Initiate^ and revealed 
by degrees, according as the Neophyte demonstrates 
his fitness to receive, conceal, and rightly use the 
knowledge so imparted. Few professed Christians 
are, perhaps, aware that such was the case with 
Christianity from its earliest times up to the pres- 
ent and that such must continue to be the case for 
all times to come, until men reach perfection. 

All true Occult Fraternities recognize the whole 
world as but one Republic, of which each Nation is 
a family, and every individual a child, not in any 
wise derogating from the differing duties which the 
diversity of states requires, tends to create a new 
people, which, composed of many nations and 
tongues, shall be bound together by the bonds of a 
true Science, the belief of the Fatherhood of an All- 
wise Being and the Universal Brotherhood of Man. 



48 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

Therefore, the real object of these Orders, be they 
Mystic Masonry or mij other Mystic or Occult Fra^- 
teriiities, may be summed up in the following: To 
efface from among men the prejudices of caste, the 
conventional distinctions of color, origin, opinion, 
nationality ; to annihilate fanaticism and supersti- 
tion, extirpate national discord and with it extin- 
guish the firebrand of wa.r;in a word — to arrive, 
by free and pacific progress, at one formula or 
model of eternal and universal right, according to 
which each individual human being shall be free to 
develop every faculty with Y/hich he may be en- 
dowed, and to concur heartily and with all the full- 
ness of his strength, in the bestowment of happi- 
ness upon all, and thus to make of the whole human 
race one family of brothers, united by Love, Wis- 
dom and Science. 

In order to do this, a true and beautiful Philoso- 
phy must be taught. True Science and Religion 
must be wedded together and the Key to both Sci- 
ence and Religion or Philosophy must be God — 
Love. Such a Philosophy are we ever ready to 
teach and only by so doing can a Universal Brother- 
hood of Man be founded. 

The essential form or idea of all things; the 
potency or force ; and tbe matter as we now discern 
it, must have existed in primordial space. There- 
fore, these two always exist, viz: the inner potency, 
and the outer act ; the concealed Idea, and the outer 
form ; the inner meaning and the outer event. Each 
in turn a symbol of the other. Hence the saying 
on the Smaragdine Table of Hermes, as above, so 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 4? 

Jbelpw. All outward things are therefore symbols, 
or embodiments of pre-existing Ideas, and out of 
this subjective Ideal realm all visible things have 
emanated. This doctrine of emanations is the key 
to the Philosophy of Plato, and that of the Gnostic 
and Essene sects from which the early Christians 
derived their Mysteries, 

There is a Grand Science known as Magic^ and every 
Real blaster of any Order must be a Magician. Feared 
by the ignorant^ and ridiculed by the supposedly ^Uearn- 
ed, " the Divine Science and its Masters have, nevertheless, 
existed in all ages, and exist today as surely as the Or- 
ders or Fraternities exist in which they are the Masters, 
Occultism in its deeper meaning and recondite mysteries 
constitutes and possesses this Science, and all genuine 
Initiation consists in an unfolding of the natural j^owera 
of the Neophyte, so that he shall become the very thing he 
desires to possess. In seeking Magic, he Anally becomes 
the Magi. All genuine Initiation is like evolution and 
regeneration from icithin. Devoid of this Inner mean- 
ing and power, all Rituals and Ceremonial Iniiiaticms 
are but foolish jargon and without meaning to the Initia- 
ted. That the Ghristlife and power that made Jesus to 
be called Ghristos, blaster, whereby he healed the sick 
cast out devils, and foretold future events, is the 
same Life revealed by Initiation in the Greater 
Mysteries of Antiquity, is perfectly plain. The dis- 
repute into which the Divine Science has fallen has 
arisen from its abuse and degradation. 

There are dangers inseparable from Symbolism 
and Mysticism, which afford an impressive lesson 
in regard to similar risks attendant on the use of 



P THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

secret forces. The ImagiDation called in to assist 
the i-eason usurps its piace^ or leaves its ally help- 
lessly entangled in its vveb. Names which gtand for 
tluiigs are eonfonnded with them; the means are 
mistaken for the ends; the instrument of interpret 
iation for the object; and thus s:ymbols come to 
iisurp an independent character as truths and per- 
sons. Though perhaps a necessary path, they are 
fi dangerous one, by wluch to approach the Deity; 
in which many, says Plutarch, mistaking the sign 
for the thing signified, fell into a ridiculous super- 
3tition, while others, in avoiding one extreme, 
plunge into the no less hideous gulf of irreligion 
p^nd impiety, 

It is through the Mysteries, Cicero sa5^s, that v/e 
have learned the first principles of Life, wherefore 
the term "'Initiation" is used with good reason. 

To emiiloy Nature's Universal Symbolism instead 
of the technicalities of language, rewards the hum- 
blest inquirer and discloses its secrets to everyone 
in proportion to his preparatory training to com- 
prehend thern. If their Philosophical mepming was 
g^bove the comprehension of some, their moral and 
political m^eanings are within the reach of all. 

In every age there have been dabblers in magic 
as there are at the present time; sorcerers and nec- 
romancers, w^ho, possessing some of the secrets, 
and imbued with none of its beneficence, have used 
this knowledge and power for purely personal and 
selfish ends. Hypnotism and Phenomenal Spiritu- 
alism are sufficient illustrations of the power 
referred to, and the abuse to which it may be put. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE M 

Magic^ per se, is pJways aii absolute Science, and 
tip to a certain point it may be cultivated withouf^ 
regard to its use, or the well-being of man ;■ aitliougli 
any a.buse of it will prove fatal to the magiciaii 
sooner or later and the black Magician will eventu- 
ally destroy himsell 

The popular idea i^ that education consists largely* 
in the cultivation of the intellectual powers. An 
averp.ge standard of morals is always recommended 
by educators, and its outer form is ihustrated by 
religious ceremonies. But intellectual cultiva^tioii 
alone, no matter to what extent it may be carried—^ 
and the further it goes on in this one-sided way th^ 
worse for all concerned— is in no sense an evolu^ 
tion, as such one-sided education is the cause of our 
present day bigotism and extreme narrow-minded^ 
ness. Perfect intellectual development^ without' 
spiritual discernment and m.oral obligation, is thet 
sign-manual of Satan: Intelligence^ without good- 
ness, lies athwart the Divine Pla,n in the evolution 
of Cosmos* Intellect and Altruism by no mean.^ 
necessarily go hand in hand. One ma.y have a very 
clear intellect, have quick perceptions, and be a 
good reasoner, and 5^et a perfect scoundreL On the? 
other hand, the one may be very dull intellectually ,- 
and yet be kind, brotherly and sympathetic to the iasf 
degree. A world made up of the former v/ould be a 
bad place to live in ; if of the lalterj a thousand time^ 
to be preferred. Magic contemplates thatalharound 
development which, liberating the intellect from 
the dominion of the senses and illuminating th^ 
Spiritual Perceptions, places the individual on th# 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 52 

lines of least resistance with the Inflexible Laws of 
Nature, and he becomes Nature's co-worker or 
hand-maid. To all such, Nature mptkes obeisance, 
and delegates her powers, and they become Mas- 
ters. The real Master conceals his power and uses 
it only for the good of others. He works '* without 
the hope of fee or reward, " knowing that God is just. 

Knowing that "Knowledge is Power," designing 
and evil men desire to possess both knowledge and 
power for entirely selfish purposes. It may be 
readily understood that the more knowledge and 
power a purely selfish man possesses, the more 
inimical to humanity he becomes. He can do less 
harm if kept in ignorance. This is especially the 
case with those Deeper Sciences which deal with 
Mind, and influence the thoughts and actions of 
others. Modern Science^ purely materialistiG ia its 
aims and condasions, has always ridiculed the idea em- 
bodied in Magic^ for materialism can never recognize 
the Spiritual, 

The traditional Lost Word of the Master is a key 
to all the science of Magic, but it must be remem- 
bered that the Lost Word is not a Word, but refers 
to Spiritual Awakening; Spiritual Development; 
the finding of the Christ within the heart of man. The 
knowledge of the Master is not empirical. It does 
not consist of a few isolated formulas by which cer- 
tain startling or unusual effects can be produced. 
Formulas have nothing to do with this knowledge. 
J fe has found and knows Ids oivn soul, he has purified 
the heart so that it throbs with Love for Humanity and 
through the re-awakening of Instinct and Intuition^ he 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 53 

holds the key to the Universe and therefw^e uses Na- 
ture'^s Laws ivhereby to do his ivork. Be does not work 
contrary to Natural Laivs, but in harmony with them. 
The Magician's art is th,erefore based on a Science 
far deeper and more exact than modern physical 
science has yet dreamed of, and back of this science 
Hes a Philosophy as boundless as the Universe, as 
inexhaustible as Time, and as beneficent as the 
"Father in Heaven." 

Such men, such Masters — of themselves, have 
always existed, and no book or record v^orth pre- 
serving or in any way necessary for the good of 
man is ever lost. In the secret Crypts, alike inac- 
cessible to the hands of Uninitiated man, and the 
corrosion of time and decay, these Records are well 
preserved and can only be made use of by those 
who are truly prepared and are fit to make use of 
their teachings. 

All human progress runs in cycles. Modern 
materialistic science has had its brief day and must 
gradually give way. True philosophy has already 
undermined its foundations. The new age will show 
a genuine revival of Philosophy and true Science. 

The immortal principles enunciated by Plato, 
clothed in modern garb of thought, less involved 
and dialectical, will again command the attention of 
the thinking world. Every one is aware that the 
source of Plato's knowledge was the Mysteries; he 
was an Initiate, and on almost every page reveals 
the obligation he is under not to betray to the com- 
mon people the secrets taught only to Initiates 
under the pledge of secrecy. 



64 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

There is in Nature one most potent force, by 
means of wliicb, a single man, who could possess 
himself of it, and should know how to direct it, 
could revolutionize and change the whole face of the 
world. This force was known to the Ancients and 
the secret is still held by the true Mystic Fraterni- 
ties of this day. It is a Universal agent, whose 
supreme law is eqnilibriiim; and whereby, if sci- 
ence can but learnTiow to control it, it will be pos- 
sible to change the order of the Seasons ; to produce 
in night the phenomena of day; to send a thought 
in an instant around the world ; to heal or slay at a 
distance; to give our words universal success, and 
make them reverberate everywhere. 

There is a Life Principle of the world, a universal 
agent, yvherein are two natures and a double cur- 
rent of love and wrath. This ambient fluid pervades 
everything. It is a ray detached from the glory of 
the Sun, and fixed by the weight of the atmosphere 
and the central attraction. It is the body of the 
Holy Spirit, the Universal Agent, the Serpent 
devouring his own tail. 

With this electro-miagnetic ether, this vital a^nd 
luminous caloric, the Ancients and the Alchemists 
were familiar. Of this agent, that phase of modern 
ignoreince termed physical science, talks incoher- 
ently, knowing nothing of it save its effects ; and the- 
ology might apply to it all its pretended definitions 
of spirit. 

Quiescent, it is appreciable by no human sense; 
disturbed, or in movement, none can explain its 
mode of action except a real Master, and to term it 



THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 55 

a '* fluid" and speeik of its "currents," is but to veil 
a profound ignorance under a cloud of words. 

The Bible, with all the allegx>ries it contains, ex 
presses, in a veiled and incomplete manner only, the 
religious science of the Hebrews. The doctrines of 
Moses and the prophets, identical at bottom with 
that of the ancient Egyptians, also had its outer 
meaning and its veils. The HeV^rew books were 
w^ritten only to recall to memory/ the traditions ; and 
they were written in Symbols unintelligible to the 
Profane, The Pentateuch and the prophetic poems 
were merely elementary books of doctrines, morals 
or liturgy; and the true secret and traditional phil- 
osophy was only written afterwards, under a veil 
still less transparent. This was a second Bible 
born, unknown to, or rather uncomprehended by^ 
the Christians of later times, "a collection, they say^ 
of monstrous absurdities; a monument, the Adept 
says, wherein is everything that the genius of Phil-^ 
osophy and that of religion ha.ve ever formed or im- 
agined of the Sublime; a treasure surrounded by 
thorns ; a diamond concealed in a rough dark stone. " 

The KPtbalah then, alone consecrates the alliance 
of the Universal Reason and Divine Word; it estab== 
lishes, by the counterpoise of two forces apparently 
opposite, the eternal balance of being; it pJone rec^ 
onciles Reason with Faith, andPower with Liberty^ 
Science with Mystery; it has the keys of the Pres- 
ent, the Past, and the Future. 

One is filled with admiration on penetrating into 
the Sanctuary of the Kabalah, at seeing a doctrine 
so logical, so simple and at the same time so abso- 



56 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

lute. The necessary union of ideas and signs, the 
consecration of the most fundamental realities by 
the primitive characters ; the Trinity of Words, Let- 
ters and Numbers; a Philosophy simple as the alpha- 
bet, profound and infinite as the World; Theorems 
more complete and luminous than those of Pythago- 
ras; a theology summed up by counting on one's 
fingers ; an Infinite which can be held in the hollow 
of an infant's hand, ten ciphers and twenty-two let 
ters, a triangle, a square and a circle — these are 
all the elements of the Kabalah. These are the ele 
mentary principles of the written Word, reflection 
of that spoken Word that created the world. 

Life may be represented by a Triangle, at the 
apex of which is God. Of this triangle the two sides 
are formed by two streams, the one flowing out- 
wards, the other upwards. The base may be taken 
to represent the material plane. Thus, from God 
proceed the Gods. Prom the Gods proceed all the 
Hierarchy of heaven, with the various orders from 
the highest to the lowest. Here again we have the 
Doctrine of Hermes. 

The Kabalah of the ancient Hebrews, which 
Moses derived by Initiation into the Mysteries of 
Egypt and Persia, was identical among the He- 
brews, the Egyptians, Hindus and other nations of 
antiquity, was known as the Secret Doctrine, 

Initiation is knowledge unfolded by degrees in an 
orderly^ systematic way^ step hy step, as the capacity to 
ajpprehend opens in the Neophyte. The result is not a 
possession, hut a growth, an evolution. Knowledge is 
7iotamere sum in oMition; something added to some- 



THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE Zf 



thing that already exists; but rather such a progressive 
change of transformation of the original struGture as ta 
make of it at every step a New Being, Real Knoivledge^ 
or the growth of Wisdom in Man, is an Eternal Beconi- 
ing; a progressive transformation into the likeness of th6 
Supreme Goodness and Supreme Power, 

The Sacred Books of all religions, including thos0 
of the Jews and the Christians, were and are nc^ 
more than parables and allegories of the real Secret' 
Doctrines, transcribed for the ignorant and super-^ 
stitious masses. All commentaries written on thes0 
Sacred Books, whether on those of Moses, the^ 
Psalms and the Prophets of Judaism, the Gospels 
of the Gnostics and Christians, or those written or^ 
the Sacred Books of the East — the Vedas, Puranas^- 
and Upanishads — all either make confusion more^ 
confounded when written by one ignorant of the? 
Secret Doctrine, or, when written by Initiates, but* 
bring the changes on, or further elaborate the para- 
bles and allegories. 

It is easily demonstrable that the Secret Doctrine^ 
came originally from Atlantis, and is the Primitive 
Wisdom Religion. Its earlier records are now 
found in Asia, Egypt, and India and from thence' 
carried through other countries. 

Underlying this Secret Doctrine is a profound 
philosophy of the creation or evolution of worlds and 
of man. The present humanity in many quartern 
of the globe, has evolved on the intellectual plane 
so far that there now exist a very large number of 
personscapableof apprehending this old philosophy^ 
and, at the same time, capable of understanding the 



58 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

responsibility incurred in niisusing or misinterpret- 
ing it. A large number of persons have reached, on 
the intellectual plane, the state of manhood ; and are \ / 
capable of partaking of the "fruit of the tree of \/ 
knowledge of Good and Evil. " There is, therefore, | 
no reason why this old philosophy should be longer j \ 
concealed. On the other hand, there are reasons / 
whj^ it should be known. Enipirical knowledge has 
adva.nced in certain directions into tlie realm of 
Psychism, and the arts anciently designated by 
the term Magic, and it is imperative that the dan- 
gers that attend these pursuits should be pointed 
out and demonstrated, in order that they may be 
avoided by the beneficent, and that the igno- 
rant or innocent may be afforded protection. 
How far these modern inroads into Occultism 
or ancient Magic extended very few persons seem 
to realize. It is therefore high time that the Phil- 
osophy of the East should iJiumine the science of 
the West, and thus give the death blow to that Intel- j 
lectual diabolism, and spiritual nihilism, known as 
Materiahsm, and this only the. Secret Doctrine can 
accomplish. Grave responsibility, however, is in- 
curred by such a revelation. Those who, like the 
professional Hypnotist and the Vi visectionists, have 
sinned, perhaps ignorantly, and thus have been 
unconsciously "Black Magicians," will eventually 
find no avenue of escape. 

As I am preparing the above, I receive a clipping 
entitled "The Mystic Side of the Bacillus Theory," 
by that Master of both Medicine and the Secret 
Doctrine, Dr J. R. Phelps. Since Serum Therapy 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 59 

and Vivivseclion go hand in hand, I think it well to 
reproduce the article as it will show tha,t we are 
reaching a state where true knowledge is dema^nded. 

''The man who has the temerity to question, or 
even discuss in a questioning way, the generally 
accepted basic principles that underlie his profes- 
sion, is apt to find himself set down a heretic, and 
invites the sneers and inuendoes, if not crucifixion, 
of those who accept the deductions of scientists, 
and deny the right of speech to anyone who dares 
to be wise above what is written. Not that it fol- 
lows, by a.ny means, that the heretic is necessarily 
right any more than it follows that the human sci- 
entist is always right For science has a large rub- 
bish-heap in its back yard, on which may be found- 
many a discarded pla.nk that once formed part of 
its infallible platform. 

"A scientist once told me that a drop of nitric 
acid applied to a piece of freshly broken granite re- 
vealed, under the microscope, numerous living 
things similar to animalculae found in stagnant 
water. 'This,' he asserted, 'proves that the solid 
rock is full of life!' I fail to see that it proves any 
such thing. It simply shows that the action of the 
acid produced a form of motion there, and wherever 
there is Inotion there is a magnetic current, and 
forms having life spring into existence — not that 
they were anj^ more in the rock than in the acid, or 
that necessarily they were in either. 

"After all, is there not as much mystery about the 
manifestation of life in matter as there is about 
thought action? Things become perceptible to us 



00 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

when they come within the range of the senses, but 
liave they no form of existence before they come 
Into this Y^lane? Or do things spring from nothing? 

"It has become the fashion, when there is a dis- 
eased bodily condition, to go on a hunt for the bacil- 
lus that is one of the manifestations of that condi- 
tion. I have nothing to say against this proceed- 
ing, but it is a mistake to allow this research to 
4close up every other avenue of investigation, and 
assume, offhand, that the bacillus is the creator of 
the disease, rather than its creaUo/i. And there are 
fnany of our profession who are thinking along this 
:Same line. 

If we read of the cures effected by the Divine 
Master (call him 'The Nazarene,' if you please, I 
don't care for names), we find His cures almost 
invariably prefixed by the words, 'Thy sins be for- 
given thee;' and this declaration was always an 
offense to the pharasaical beholder. They could 
recognize the fact that a paralytic had been strangely 
healed, a leper cleansed, when the paralyzed man 
walked off with his bed on his back, or the hue of 
health came back to the pallid, ulcerated counte- 
nance; but the word of j^oiver that reached beyond 
their vision, and changed the mental condition that 
produced the disease, was too much for their com- 
prehension. 

"Let me quote from a writer on Mystical sub- 
jects : 'Disease does not enter in any manner from 
without. That which is external, simply awakens 
that which is already within us. Disease is not a 
thing — it is simply a depolarization. That sights 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 6i 

and sounds lure the imagination into activity, t 
claim, and in this faculty of the mind depolariza" , / 



tion of the spirit's action -takes place, which caused 
a sudden condensation of spirit in some parts of 
the system, to the damage of other parts left desti- 
tute. Thus the system is all thrown out of har- 
mony, because the normal action of spirit i^ 
disturbed. 

'*Now, belief being the fundamental principle oi 
power, and man being more physical than mental^ 
his belief is more readily aroused and sustained hf 
physical substances than by ideas; hence, the Magi 
used charms, amulets and talismans to inspire th0 
belief of the ignorant and ma^terial. -— — 
"^^''Purthermore, who can doubt for a moment thaf 
drugs, metals, vegetable substances, etc., have 0- 
peculiar affinity for, or are antipathetic to, that 
department of the spiritual nature which we calf 
the Imagination? 

All action is dual — direct and reflex* If material 
substances act and create mental conditions — whiclf 
I do not deny — then mental conditions act on and 
create material things. The impure, diseased im^ 
agination, finding in the physical organism soil 
suitable for the purpose, impregnates it and gener*' 
erates bacilli. To deny this hypothesis does not dl§^ 
prove it. The bacteriologist, with his microscope^ 
discovers bacilli, and assumes that they are self^ 
created or produced by material, chemical action 
of the phj^sical atoms. This may answer as expM- 
nation of maggots in rotten cheese, but the hous# 
of an immortal thing, which we call soul or spirili 



V 



62 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRU 

is something different. There is no motion of miis- \ 
cles, tendon or ligament that is not started first by I 
mental action and will, through^ (not oy) the ^ 
brain. And there is not a bacillus or microbe 
infesting the blood or tissues, that did not have a 
definite, positive existence before it became mani- 
fest to the microscope ; and if we understand the 
workings of mind as well as we do the anatomy of 
the body (and there are some facts regarding thisj 
even, that we are ignorant of), we might get more 
control over disease than we now seem to possess. 
And even with this influence over the mind, what 
do we do when an epidemic of cholera breaks out? 
We set people to cleaning out their back yards, dis- 
posing of rubbish, and, more important still, try to 
teach them to keep themselves clean, and this occu- 
pation tends to produce a (temporary, at least), 
condition of mentaJ cleanliness. Washing the out- 
side of cup and platter is something in the way of 
removing filth, and it is an accomplishment of some 
moment to teach some men the religion of a clea;n 
shirt. Mental uncleanliness is apt to generate 
bodily uncleanliness, and then the bacillus is a logi- 
cal sequence. 

"There is much attention being directed of late 
to prophylactic treatment. Would it not be as well 
to extend this system a little further, and see if it 
is not possible to pass over the border a little way 
— cross the fence which science has erected be- 
tween the realm of matter and the realm of the im- 
ponderable, and see if, after all, there may not be 
something to be accomplished in the way of regu- 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 63 

lation of disease before the enemy effects his inva- 
sion of the land? I believe we can meet v^ith some 
measure of success, if we divest ourselves of some 
of our preconceived notions, and cease to take coun- 
sel of our denials, our limitations, our fears. It 
may be that there is something to be learned by 
looking at the ba^cilTus theory from the Ivlystic side. 
For, let the materialist doubt, a,nd scout, and deny, 
as he will, there is that side of the question, and it 
is every day forcing itself more and more into rec- 
ognition. 'There are more things in heaven and 
earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy,' aiid 
there always will be. " 

This then, is Science and Religion wedded. Had 
we miore such teachers we would soon have a true 
Science but we m.ust wait a little vv^iile longer. 
There can be no lines drawn as to where m^aterial 
science ends and Spiritual science begins. There- 
fore, the two should be as one. 

They know little of the forces at work, or the 
principles involved, who imagine that there is suffi- 
cient force in dissolving creeds, or in the dying 
throes of mpoterialism, to greatly retard the prog- 
ress of these truths by sneers or ridicule, or to pre- 
vent their triumph by any opposition that can 
bring to bear ptgainst them. 

The Secret Doctrine was the universally diffused 
religion of the ancient prehistoric world. Proof 
of its diffusion, authentic records of its history, a 
complete chain of documents, showing its charac- 
ter and presence in every land, together with the 
teachings of all its great Adepts or Masters, exist 



#4 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

to this day in the secret crypts of hbraries belong- 
ing to the Occult Fraternities. 

The days of Constantine were the last turning 
point in history. The period of the Supreme strug- 
gle that ended in the Western world throttling the 
old religions in favor of the new ones, built on their 
bodies. From thence the vista into the far distant 
past, beyond the ''Deluge" and the ''Garden of 
JEden," began to be forcibly and relentlessly closed 
hy every fair and unfair means against the indis- 
rcreet gaze of posterity. Every issue was blocked 
pp, every record that hands could be laid upon, 
destroyed. 

This same Constantine who, with his soldiers, 
environed the Bishops at the first Council of Nice, 
A. D., 325, and dictated terms to their delibera- 
iions, applied for Initiation into the Mysteries, and 
was told by the officiating priest that no purgation 
^ould free him from the crime of putting his wife 
to death, or from his many perjuries and murders. 
Every careful and unbiased student of history 
knows why the Secret Doctrine has been heard of 
so little since the days of Constantine. An exoteric 
religion, and belief in a personal God blotted it out 
of self -protection ; and yet, the very Pentateuch 
£!onceals it, and for many a student of the Kabalah, 
of the coming century, the seals will be broken. 

There are three fundamental propositions that 
underlie the Secret Doctrine. ( 1. ) ''An omni- 
present, Eternal, Boundless, and Immutable Prin- 
ciple on which aU speculation is impossible, since 
it transcends the power of human conception, and 



THE PHII.OSOPHY OP FIRE 65 

could only be dwarfed by tmj human expression or 
similitude. It is beyond the range and reach of 
human thought — in the words of Mandyky a, ''un- 
thinkable and upspeakabie, " This Infinite and 
Eternal Cause — dimly formulated in the '"Uncon- 
scious" and "Unknowable" of current European 
Philosophy — is the rootless root of ''all that was, 
is, or ever shall be, " In Sanskrit it is " Sat. " This 
*'Beness" is symboii^^d in the Secret Doctrine 
under two aspects. 

On the one hand, Absolute abstract Space, rep- 
resenting bare subjectivity, the one thing which no 
human mind can either exclude from any concep- 
tion or conceive of by itself. 

On the other hand, Absolute abstract Motion rep- 
resenting "Unconditioned Consciousness. " Spirit 
(or Consciousness) and Matter are, ho vv ever, to be 
regarded, not as independent realities, but as the 
two facets or aspects of the Absolute, which con- 
stitutes the basis of conditional Being whether sub- 
jective or objective. "Considering this metaphysi- 
cal triad "(the one realit^^. Spirit and Matter) "as 
the root from which proceeds all manifestation, the 
'Great Breath' assumes the character of precosmic 
Ideation." 

(2) The second of the three postulates of the 
Secret Doctrine is : "The Eternity of the Universe 
in toto as a boundless plane: periodically^ 'the play- 
ground of numbeiless Universes incessantly m^ani- 
festing and disappearing,' cpJled 'the manifesting 
stars ' and the ' sparks of Eternity. ' ' The Eternity 
of the Pilgrim ' (the Monad or Self in man) is like a 

5 



66 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

wink of the Eye of Self -Existence. 'The appear- 
ance and disappearance of worlds is like a regular 
tidal ebb of flux and reflux.' " 

(3 ) "The fundamental identity of all Souls with 
the Universal Over- Soul, the latter being itself an 
p^spect of the Unknown Root; and the obligatory 
pilgrimage for every Soul — a spark of the former — 
through the Cycle of Incarnation in accordance 
with Cyclic and Karmic law, during the whole 
term." ''The pivotal doctrine of the Eastern Phil- 
osophy admits no privileges or specific gifts in man, 
save those won by his own Ego through personal 
effort and merit through a long series of Metempsy- 
chosis and Reincarnations." 

Souls are reincarnated hundreds and thousands 
of times; but not the person (which implies the body), 
for the body perishes. These things were taught 
by the Essenes, Gnostics, Therapeutae and Jesus; 
and the doctrine is embodied in the parable of the 
Talents, as thus explained: — Into the soul of the 
individual is breathed the Spirit of God, divine, 
pure, and without blemish. It is God. And the 
individual has, in his earth-life, to nourish that 
Spirit and feed it as a Flame with Oil. When you 
put oil into a lamp, the essence passes into and 
becomes flame. So is it with the soul of him who 
nourishes the Spirit. It grows gradually pure, and 
becomes the Spirit. By this means the Spirit be- 
comes the richer. And, as in the parable of the 
Talents, where God has given five talents, man pays 
back ten; or he returns nothing, and perishes. 

When a soul has once become regenerate, it 



THE PXILOSOPXY OP FIRE 6f 

returns to the body only by its own free will, and 
as a Redeemer or Messenger. Such a one regains 
in the flesh the memory of the past. Regeneration 
or Transmutation may take place in an instant; but 
it is rarely a sudden thing, and it is best that it 
come gradually, so that the '^Marriage" of the 
Spirit be only after a prolonged engagement. 

The doctrine of ^'Counterparts," so familiar to 
certain classes of ^^Spiritualists," is a travesty, due 
to delusive spirits, of the "Marriage of Regenera- 
tion." Regeneration does not affect the interior 
man only. A regenerated person may have his 
body such that no poison will cause death. ( ''Za^ 
noni," in Lytton's story, "drinking the poisoned 
wine.") 

At death, a portion of the soul remains uncon^ 
sumed — Untransmuted, that is, into spirit. The 
soul is fluid, and between it and vapor is this anab 
ogy. When there is a large quantity of vapor in a 
small place it becomes condensed, and is thick and 
gross. But when a portion is removed, the rest 
becomes refined, and is rare and pure. So it is 
with the soul. By the transmutation of a portion 
of its material the rest becomes finer, rarer and 
purer, and continues to do so more and more until 
— after many incarnations, made good use of — the 
whole of the soul is absorbed into the Divine Spirit, 
and becomes one with God. 

Every soul must work out its own salvation. Sal- 
vation by Faith and the vicarious atonement were 
not taught, as now interpreted, by Jesus, nor are 
these doctrines taught in the exoteric Scriptures. 



68 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

They are later and ignorant perversions of the 
original doctrines. In tiie Early Churchy as in the 
Secret Doctrine, there was not one Christ for the 
whole worldj bat a potential Christ in every man. 
Theologians first made a fetish of the Impersonal 
Omnipresent Divinity; and then tore OJiristos from 
the hearts of all humanity in order to deify Jesus; 
that they might have a God-man peculiarly their 
own! 

How much one's idea of God colors all his 
thoughts and deeds, is seldom realized. The ordi- 
nary crude and ignorant conception of a personal 
God more often results in slavish fear on the one 
hand, and Atheism on the other. It is what Car- 
lyle calls *'an absentee God, doing nothing since the 
six days of crea;tion, but sitting on the outside and 
seeing it go!" This idea of God carries with it, of 
course, the idea of creation, as something already 
completed in time; when the fact is that creation is 
a process without beginning or end. The world — 
all worlds — are being "created" today as much as 
at any period in the past. Even the apparent de- 
struction of worlds is a creative, or evolutionary 
process. Emanating from the bosom of the all, and 
running their cyclic course; day alternating with 
night, on the outer phj^sical plane, they are again 
indrawn to the invisible plane, only to re-emerge 
after a longer night and start again on a higher 
cycle of evolution. Theologians have tried in vain 
1 3 attach the idea otimmano nee to that of personality, 
and ended in a jargon of words and utter confusion 
of ideas. A personal Absolute is not, except in 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 69 

potency. God does not thinks but is the cause of 
Thought. God does not love, He is Love, in the 
perfect or absolute sense ; and so v/ith all the Divine 
Attributes. God is thus the concealed Logos, the 
*' Causeless Cause." God never manifests Himself 
(to be seen of men). Creation is His manifestation; 
and as creation is not complete, and never will be, 
and as it never had a beginning, there is a concealed 
or unrevealed potency back of and beyond all crea- 
tion, v^hich is still God. 

All men are brothers by all the laws of Nature 
and hj the very being of God. But so long as Re- 
ligion defines Heresy as a crime, or imagines a God 
with human attributes, "man's inhumanity to man" 
will continue to m.ake "countless millions miOurn," 
and find vent for all evil passions justified by their 
idea of God. 

The Christ is no less Divine because all men may 
reach the same Divine perfection. It will be urged 
that "there is no other name given under heaven or 
amongst men whereby we can be saved." This is 
the Ineffable Name, which every Master is to pos- 
sess and become^ and salvation and perfection are 
synonomous. Every act in the life of Jesus, and 
every quality assigned to Christ, is to be found in 
the life of Krishna and in the legend of all the Sun- 
Gods from the remotest times. 

That which the orthodox Christian will find to 
oppose to this view is not that it dethrones or de- 
grades Christ, but that it disproves the idea of 
Christ as their exclusive possession, and denies 
that all other religions are less Divine than their 



to THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

own. The same selfishness is brought into religion 
that is indulged in regard to other possessions, 
such as wife and children, and other possessions 
that are valued; and the same partisan spirit that 
is in politics, and this more than anything else 
appears to justify selfishness in general, militates 
against the Universal Brotherhood of Man, and pre- 
vents the founding of a Great Republic composed 
of all nations and all people. This idea of Universal 
Brotherhood was the cardinal doctrine in the An- 
cient Mysteries. There are no favorites in the 
Divine Conception. Ju s tice regards each individual 
of all the myriads constituting Humanity with equal 
favor. Justice of God toward all implies Justice 
toward each other among men. This principle of 
Justice is Law Universal, and this principle of 
Brotherhood and the perfectibility of man's nature 
through evolution necessitates Reincarnation. The 
number of souls constituting Humanity, thoiagh 
practically innumerable, is, nevertheless, definite. 
Hence the doctrine of pre-existence taught in all 
the Mysteries applied to ** every child of woman 
born ; all conditions in each life being determined 
by previous lives. (This is fully dealt with in 
the ''Beautiful Philosophy" by Count St. Vincent, 
which is only open to Initiates.) Thus the Father- 
hood of God in the personification of Divinity in 
Humanity includes the Universal and Unqualified 
Brotherhood of Man. 

The real Masters in all ages, knowing this from 
the lessons taught in the Mysteries of Initiation, 
have ever been the foes of Autocrats, Oligarchies, 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 71 

and Oppression in every form, whether ecclesiasti- 
cal or Political. Initiates are taught to obey the laws 
of the country in which they live. They are not 
agents of Revolution, but of Evolution. By enlight- 
enment and persuasion they may strive to reform 
a nation or a church. The true Republic is the out- 
growth of Brotherhood, and a jealous monarch in 
Church or State will naturally oppose the diffusion 
of doctrines that tend to the liberation and enlight- 
enment of the people. 

Mysticism does not preach a new religion, it but 
reiterates the New Commandment announced by 
the Christ, which was also announced by every 
great reformer of religion since history began. 
Drop the theological barnacles from the Religion of 
Jesus, as taught by Him, and by the Essenes and 
Gnostics of the first centuries, and it becomes true 
Mysticism again. Mysticism or Occultism, is not 
derived from the Ancient Religion, Secret Doctrine 
of the Kabalah, but is the Secret Doctrine. Mason- 
ry and all other Orders founded on the Mysteries 
is derived from it and Mysticism is therefore noi 
indebted to Masonry, but Masonry is indebted to 
Mysticism, because if it had not been for the Secret 
Doctrine, Masonry could not have existed, in fact, 
it would never have been founded. 

The old Hebrew Kabalah as part of the Great 
Universal Wisdom-Religion of Antiquity, stands 
squarely for the Universal Brotherhood of Man, and 
has stood thus in all ages. To Christianize Mysti- 
cism or Occultism is an impossibility. It cannot be 
bound by any Creed or any Government ; it is free. 



72 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

"The thinnest veil over the Sublime Mystery of 
the Ineffable Name is Brotherhood and Love! The 
gross darkness that hangs like a black veil over the 
SheJcinah, is Selfishness and Hate. Even so hath it 
ever been; and so will it ever be till Brotherly Love, 
Relief, and Truth reign universally in the hearts of 
all Humanity. The refinements of so-called Civili- 
zation do not change the essential nature of ma,n. 
Beneath all these there sleeps or v^akes a demon or 
an angel, and one of these is ever in chains, for no 
man can serve two masters. " Dr. J. D. Buck never 
wrote truer words than these. 

The Science and Religion of the West are in per- 
petual conflict. The genius of this religion discerns 
Faith and Miracle as its foundation. Science holds 
as its ideals Pact and Law. Thus religion is neces- 
sarily illogical, while science is materialistic to the 
extreme, and, thanks to both, mankind is as far 
from any real knowledge of the nature and destiny 
of the soul as it was a thousand years ago. The 
conflict has long been maintained ; it is a war to the 
death ; both religion and science are being reformed, 
and long before the battle ceases, neither of the origi- 
nal champions will be found to exist, except in their 
progeny of Eastern parentage. 

The Western world laughs at this, for looking at 
the Secret Doctrine and the mighty religions of 
India, Egypt, Greeee, and Judea only from the out- 
side, nothing but discord, superstition, and chaos 
can be seen. But if one examines the symbols, 
questions the Mysteries, and searches out the root- 
idea of the founders and of the prophets, harmony 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE fS 

will be seen througiiout. Along divers and often 
winding paths, one will ever reach the same point, 
so that penetration into the Arcanum of one of these 
religions means entrance into the secrets of the 
rest. Then a strange phenomena takes place. By 
degrees, but in a widening circle, the Doctrine of 
the Initiates is seen to shine forth in the Center of 
the rehgions, like a Sun clearing away its nebula; 
Each religion appears as a different planet. With 
each we change both atmosphere and celestial ori- 
entation, still it is always the same Sun which illu- 
mines us. India, the mighty dreamer, plunges ui 
along with herself into the dream of eternit3^ 
Egypt, sublime and imposing, austere as death, in- 
vites us to the journey, beyond the grave. Enchant- 
ing Greece sweeps us along to the Magic feasts of 
Life, and gives to her Mysteries the seduction of 
her form, charming or terrible in turn, and of her 
ever-passionate soul. Finally, Pythagoras scientifi- 
cally formulates the Esoteric Doctrine, gives it the 
most complete and concise expression it has ever 
had. From these, then, will come our Science-Reli^ 
gion. The two in one. 

The Western theory of Religion is that of a Per^ 
sonal God and an arbitrary and equally mechanical, 
though miraculous creation; of a Revelation equally 
miraculous; of souls created as by arbitrary capricd 
of Deity, with the accidental co-operation of man^ 
even in violation of Divine Law. It talks of Laws^ 
but admits their abrogation through the Will (ca= 
price) of God. It is true that neither Science nor 
Religion has openly formulated the foregoing creeds, 



74 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

but they are fair deductions from the postulates as- 
sumed, the logical results of a Nature without In- 
telligence; and a God who creates Laws only to an- 
nul them at his own good pleasure! Reconciliation 
between Science and Religion thus becomes impos- 
sible, because each is a contradiction to itself. How 
different this from the Doctrine taught by the Initi- 
ate Orpheus: 

^'God is one and eternally unchangeable. He reigns 
over all. Ihe Gods are diverse and innumerable, for 
Divinity is eternal and infinite. The greatest are 
the souls of the constellations. Each constellation 
has its own suns and stars, earths and moons, and 
all issue from the Celestial Fire of Zeus, from the 
Initial Light. Half-conscious, inaccessible, and un- 
changeable, they govern the mighty whole by their 
unvarying movements. Each revolving constella- 
tion draws along in its ethereal sphere phalanxes of 
demi-gods or radiant souls who were formerly hu- 
man, and who, after descending the scale of king- 
doms, have gloriously ascended the cycles, and 
finally issued from the round of generations. It is 
through these divine spirits that God breathes, acts, 
and manifests himself; or, rather, these form the 
breath of His living soul, the rays of His eternal 

consciousness. They rule over armies of lower 
spirits which govern the elements ; they control the 
universe.* Par and near, they surround us, and, 

* Those who are on the Path and desire to know more of 
how things are ruled and brought about by the Masters, es- 
pecially those of the Third Degree, should gain access to the 
Mss. "Beautiful Philosophy" by the Count St. Vincent. This 
Mss. is only to be had by Neophytes and Initiates. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 75 

although of immortal essence, they assume ever- 
changing forms, according to nation, epoch or 
region. The impious man who denies their exist- 
ence still dreads them; the pious man worships 
without knowing them; the laitiate knoivs, attracts, 
and sees them. I struggled to find them, braved 
death, and, as is said, descended into hell to tame 
the demons of the abyss, to summon the gods from 
on high to my beloved Greece, that lofty heaven 
might unite with earth, listening with delight to 
strains divine. Celestial beauty will become incar- 
nate in the flesh of women, the Fire of Zeus will run 
in the blood of heroes, and long before mounting to 
the constellations the sons of the Gods will shine 
forth like Immortals." 

It will be seen that there is nothing Negative in 
the Secret Doctrine, nor in the Doctrines of Krish- 
na, Orpheus, Buddha and the other Gods. All they 
taught was of a Positive nature. It is only in the 
Western religion, which are mere forgeries of the 
Eastern Doctrines that we find everything Negative. 
A lie can never be Positive, because the positive 
element is missing. 

Krishna, an Initiate as mighty as Orpheus, taught 
the doctrine of the immortal soul, its rebirths and 
mystical union with God. The body, he taught, 
envelopes the soul, which makes therein its dwell- 
ing, is a finished thing, but the indw^eiling soul is in- 
visible, imponderable, incorruptible, eternal. This 
latter became the doctrine of Plato. "The earthly 
man is threefold, like the Divinity of which he is the 
reflection: intelligence, soul and body. If the soul 



76 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

is united with the inteUigence it attains to Sattva — 
Wisdom and Peace ; if it remains uncertain, between 
the intelligence and the body, it is dominated by 
rajas — passion, and turns from object to object in a 
fatal circle; if it abandons itself to the body it falls 
into tamas — want of reason, ignorance, and tempo- 
rary death. This every man may observe in and 
around himself. 

*'The soul never escapes the law, but always 
obeys it. This is the Mystery of Rebirths. As the 
depths of heaven are laid bare before the starry 
rays, so the depths of life light up beneath the glory 
of this truth. When the body is dissolved, when 
sattva is in the ascendant, the soul flies away into 
the region of those pure beings who have knowl- 
edge of the Sublime. When the body experiences 
this dissolution whilst rajas dominates, the soul 
once more comes to live amongst those who have 
bound themselves to things of earth. Again, if the 
body is destroyed when tamas dominates, the soul, 
whose radiance is dimned by matter, is again 
attracted by the wombs of irrational beings. 

''The devout man, surprised by death, after 
enjoying for several centuries the due reward of his 
virtues in superior realms of bliss, finally returns 
again to inhabit a body in some holy and respecta- 
ble family. But this kind of regeneration in this 
life is very difficult to attain. The man thus born 
again finds himself possessed of the same degree 
of application and advancement, as regards the 
intellect, as he had in his first body, and he begins 
to work afresh perfection in devotion. " 



THE PHILOSOPHY OP^ FIRE 7i 

"The mighty and profound secret, the sublime 
and sovereign mystery, is that: To attain toperfec= 
tion one must acquire the knowledge of unity, which 
is above wisdom : one must rise to the divine Being 
who is above the soul, above the inteUigence. This 
divine Being, this subhme 'Friend is in each one of us i 
God dwells witMn each man, though few can find hinii 
This is the Path of salvation. Once thou hast per^ 
ceived the perfect Being who is above the world and 
within thyself, do thou decide to abandon the enem_y ^ 
which takes the form of desire. Control thy pas= 
sions. The joys afforded by the senses are like 
wombs of future sufferings. Not only do good, but 
be good. Let the motive be in the action, not in its 
fruits. Adandon the fruits of thy works, but let 
each action be as an offering to the Supreme being. 
The man who sacrifices his desire and works to the 
Being whence proceed the beginnings of all things^ 
and by whom the universe has been formed, attains 
to perfection by this sacrifice. One in spirit, he 
acquires that spiritual wisdom which is above the 
worship of offerings, and experiences a feJicity 
divine. For he who ivithin himself finds his happi^ 
ness, his joy, and light, is one with God. Know 
then that the soul which has found God is freed 
from rebirth and death, old age and grief. Such a 
soul drinks the waters of immortality. " 

Thus Krishna explained his doctrine, which was 
really the Secret Doctrine of the Ancients, to his 
disciples; by inner contemplation he gradually 
raised them to the sublime truths which had been 
opened out to himself in the lightning-flash of his 
vision. 



78 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

. The old universal Wisdom Religion or Secret 
Doctrine is scientific to the last deg^ree ; for beneath 
both Science and Religion is the Philosophy which 
discerned the ordinary process of Eternal Nature, 
with no ' 'missing links " in evolution, and no caprice 
or contradictions anywhere in Cosmos. This is the 
Science-Religion that is being implanted in the 
Western world and as it grows, so will the so-called 
Science and Religion of the present day fade away. 

The Perfect Man is Christ; and Christ is God. 
This is the birthright of every human soul. It was 
taught in all the Greater Mysteries of Antiquity, 
but the Exoteric creeds of Christendom derived 
from the parables and allegories in which this doc- 
trine was concealed from the ignorant and the pro- 
fane, have accorded this Supreme Consummation 
to Jesus alone, and made it obscure to all the rest 
of humanity. In place of this, the grandest doc- 
trine ever revealed to man, theologians have set up 
Salvation by Faith in a man-made Creed, and the 
Authority of the Church to ''bind or loose on Earth 
or in Heaven. " Law is annulled ; Justice, dethroned; 
Merit, ignored; Effort discouraged; and Sectarian- 
ism, Atheism, and Materialism are the result. 

All real Initiation is an internal, not an external, 
process. The outer ceremony is dead and useful 
only so far as it symbolizes and illustrates, and 
thereby makes clear the inward change. In many 
of the Greater Orders, Ceremonial Initiation is 
entirely dispensed with, as it clouds, in many cases, 
the mind that would otherwise be clear. In true 
Initiation no ceremonies are needed. To Initiate 



THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 79 

truly, means to transform ; to transform means to 
regenerate; and this comes only by trial, by effort, 
by seZ/'Conquest, by sorrow, disappointment, /aiZ- 
ure; and a daily renewal of the conflict. It is in 
this that man must '* work out his own salvation." 
The consummation of Initiation is the Perfect Mas- 
ter, the Ghristos, for these are the same. They are 
the goal, the perfect consummation of human evo- 
lution. 

By constant struggle and daily conflict the Mas- 
ter has conquered self. Life after life he has gath- 
ered experience. Truly hath he been a *'man of 
sorrows and acquainted with grief." He has as- 
sailed all problems; studied all science; exhausted 
all litanies ; apprehended all Philosophies; practiced 
all arts. At every step he has loved and helped 
humanity more and more, and sought his own de- 
sires less and less. Grown familiar thus with aU 
planes of life by sore trial, by bitter conflict, by 
frequent defeat, by hope deferred, almost despair- 
ing, he has at last renounced self utterly, and so 
became **dead to the world. " 

The Initiate of the highest grade — one who has 
power to command the elemental spirits, and there- 
by to hush the storm and still the waves — can, 
through the same agency, heal the disorders and 
regenerate the functions of the body. And this he 
does by an exercise of his will which sets in motion 
the magnetic fluid. 

Such a person, an Adept or Hierarch of magnetic 
srience, is, necessarily, a person of many Incarna- 
tions. And it is principally in the East that these 



go THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

are to be found. For it is there that the oldest 
30uls are wont to congregate. It is in the East that 
human Science first arose ; and the soil and astral 
fluid there are charged with power as a vast battery 
of many piles. So that the Hierarch of the Orient 
both is himself an older soul and has the magnetic 
support of a chain of older souls, and the earth be- 
neath his feet and the medium around him are 
charged with electric force to a degree not to be 
found elsewhere. It is for this reason that the East 
is far more enlightened than the West. 

How can man become such a Master according 
to the Doctrine? The man who is without fear and 
without concupiscence; who has courage to be ab- 
3olutely poor and absolutely chaste. When it is all 
one to you whether you have gold or whether you 
have none, whether you have a house and lands or 
whether you have them not, whether you have 
worldly reputation or whether you are an outcast, 
- — then you are voluntarily poor. It is not neces- 
sary to have nothing but it is necessary to care for 
nothing. When it is all one to you whether you 
have a wife or husband, or whether you are a celi- 
bate, then you are free from concupiscence. It is 
not necessary to be a virgin; it is necessary to set 
no value on flesh. There is nothing so difficult to 
attain as this equilibrium — the Double Triangle. 
The White interlaced with the Black. When you 
have ceased both to wish to retain and to burn, then 
you have the remedy in your hands, and the remedy 
is hard and a sharp one, and a terrible ordeal. 
Nevertheless,, be thou not afraid. Deny the five 



THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 81 

senses, and above all the taste and the touch. The 
power is within you if you will to attain it. Eat no 
dea.d thing. Drink.no fermented drink. Make 
living elements of all the elements of your body. 
Take your food full of life, and let not the touch of 
death pass upon it. Remember that without self- 
immolation there is no power over death. 

When a man has attained power over the body, 
the process of ordeal is not longer necessary. The 
Initiate is under a vow ; the Hierarch is Free. Jesus, 
therefore, came eating and drinking; for all things 
were lawful to him. He had undergone, while a 
Neophyte with the Essenes, and had freed his will. 
For the object of the trial and the vow is polarisa- 
tion. When the fixed is volatilised, the Magian is 
free. But before Christ was Christ he was subject ; 
and his Initiation lasted thirty years. All things 
are lawful to the Hierarch; for he knows the nature 
and value of all. 

By evolution man is continually climbing upward 
to higher planes. His five senses are adjusted to 
observations and experiences of the physical plane; 
but he has other experiences. The senses are nar- 
now and circumscribed; yet even these become 
refined. His tastes alter, his tendencies ascend. 
He is reaching outward as his sympathies expand, 
and upward, as his ideals become higher. There 
is revealed to him a whole world of experience in 
which the lower senses play no part; a world of 
aspiration in which Self is not the goal. The very 
physical bounds of self are loosening, expanding, 
and disappearing. Hitherto he has been conscious 



82 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

of flashes in intuition; of knowing things he has 
seemingly never learned. He sees inner meanings, 
and senses subtler powers. Not only in visions and 
intuitions of the day, but in dreams of the night he 
has experiences beyond the bounds of sense. He 
learns the power of Thought. By conquering Self, 
his V/ill becomes strong. By subduing passion, 
his mind becomes clear. He has premonitions of 
coming events; for all events and thoughts and 
things exist first on higher planes, and are precipi- 
tated thence into matter. He becomes clairaudient 
and clairvoyant. He has broken the bonds of Self 
and now functions on higher planes. As his senses 
and organs on the physical plane made him Master 
there of brutes, and of physical nature, even so 
on the higher plane, the senses and organs evolve 
by the same Evolutionary Law of experience and 
choice, make him, on the higher plane. Master of 
men and of Higher Nature. 

The problem of genuine initiation, or training in 
Occultism, consists in placing all the operations of 
the body under the dominion of the Will; in freeing 
the Ego from the dominion of the appetites, passions, 
and the whole lower nature. The idea is not to de- 
spise the body, but to purify it: Not to destroy the 
appetites, butto elevate and control them absolutely. 
This mastery of the lower nature does not change 
the Key of the physical nature as such ; but subor- 
dinates it to that of a higher plane. Without this 
subordination, the clamorous lower nature drowns 
out all higher vibrations : as if in an orchestra, the 
bass-viols and the drums only could be heard; and 
noise rather than harmony would result. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 83 

The first point to be made in real Initiation is for 
the Thinker to control his thoughts. Instead of 
passively and helplessly receiving all suggestions 
that come from the physical sense, or appetites ; or* 
all that come from ambition, selfishness and pride; 
he selects, and chooses, and Wills what thoughts 
shall come. In this manner he acquires mastery 
over his own mind, and frees his wiU from the do- 
minion of Desire; or rather elevates and purifies 
Desire. 

In the Ancient Mysteries not every Initiate be- 
came a Master. There were the Lesser and the 
Greater Mysteries. To the Lesser all were eligible ; 
to the Greater, very few; and of these few, fewer 
still were ever exalted to the sublime and last de- 
gree. Some remained for a lifetime in the lower 
degrees, unable to progress further on account of 
the constitutional defect or mental and spiritual in- 
capacity. Thus it is now. The Mysteries unfolded 
the Building of Worlds, the Religion of Nature, the 
Universal Brotherhood of Man, the Immortality of 
the Soul, and the Evolution of Humanity. No cere- 
mony was artificial and meaningless; no symbol, 
however grotesque to the ignorant, was merely 
fanciful. 

Thales and Pythagoras learned in the Sanctuaries 
of Egypt that the Earth revolved around the Sun, 
but they did not attempt to make this generally 
known, because to do so would have been necessary 
to reveal one of the great Secrets of the Temple, the 
double law of attraction and radiation, or of sym- 
pathy and antipathy, or of fixedness and movement, 



84 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

which is the principle of creation and the perpetual 
cause of life. The truth was ridiculed by Lactanius, 
as it was long after sought to be proven a falsehood 
by persecution of Papal Rome. 

The Ideal in Church and State, the motive for the 
Ecclesiastical and Political Hierarchies, has been 
in all ages to govern men professedly for their own 
good. The Secret Doctrine teaches man to govern 
himself. So long as Hierarchies subordinate all 
things to the real benefit of man, and give Light and 
Knowledge to all in such measure as they can re- 
ceive, they are a blessing and not a curse. When, 
however, the Potentiate suppresses Knowledge, 
claims power by Divine Right, or by inheritance, 
rather that by proof of knowledge and by service 
done to man; when ignorance or disbelief is punished 
as a crime and men torture the body, or agonize the 
mind under the devil's plea— "to save the soul"— 
then does the Hierarchy become an enemy of both 
God and Man. Freedom and Enlightenment are 
the only real Saviors of Mankind; while ignor- 
ance is the father of Superstition, and Selfishness 
the parent of Vice. 

The Ancient Mysteries were organized schools of 
learning, and knowledge was the signal of progress 
and the basis of Fellowship. The doors of real Ini- 
tiation were open to women as to men. Such is the 
case at the present time. The lUuminati and the 
Rosicrucians both admit women to their Initiation 
on equal footing with men. Masonry at one time 
also admitted them, until the Fraternity was be- 
trayed by her. Since then she has been excluded. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 85 

The time will come again when Masonry will put 
aside most of its Ceremonialism and teach the pure 
Secret Doctrine, then will women again be admit- 
ted as of yore. 

The Ancient Wisdom concerned itself largely, as 
it does at present, with the Souls of men, and un- 
dertook to elevate the earthly life by purifying the 
Soul and exalting its Ideals. It teaches that souls 
are sexless ; and that the sex of the body is an inci- 
dent of gestation. No civilization known to man 
has ever risen to any great heights, or long main- 
tained its supremacy, that debased woman. The 
Secret Doctrine demonstrates with unmistakable 
clearness that sexual debasement in any form is 
the highway of degeneracy and destruction of both 
man and woman ; and of Nations quite as certainly 
as of individuals. 

Ever since the time of Atlantis, the true Adepts 
and Masters have been the keepers of the Great 
Lodge. These Masters have taught the Secret Re- 
ligions and true Science. The ancient governments 
were Par tiarchal; (See History of Atlantis by Dr. 
Phelon) the Ruler was also a Master Initiate, and 
the people were regarded as his children. In those 
days a Reigning Prince did not consider it beneath 
his dignity to go into the desert alone, and sit at 
the feet of some inspired recluse, in order that he 
might receive more light, which he would dispense 
to those that were ready to receive such teachings. 
Instead of teaching superstition and idolatry, when 
the real meaning of symbolism is revealed, it will 
be found to be the thinnest veil ever imposed be- 



86 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

tween the sublime Wisdom and the apprehension 
of men. The old gods were the symbolical or per- 
sonified a^ttributes of Nature, through which man 
was taught to apprehend the existence of the Su- 
preme Spirit. This was not Polytheism, nor idola- 
try, but a system of teaching that which could not 
be altogether defined, and of pointing to that which 
must forever remain unknown, and Unknowable, 
by the aid of symbol, parable, and allegory. No 
word painting known to man seems half so beauti- 
ful as some of these ancient parables and allegories. 
Not only was every oblation to love and duty por- 
trayed, and every joy of home and affection illus- 
trated, and the most common duties of life, feats of 
valor, devotion, and self-sacrifice depicted, but in a 
language so musical, and in rhythm and meter so 
perfect, as to make the whole recital more like a 
symphony than a poem. 

The parables were not invented to conceal the 
truth from those who could apprehend it, or to keep 
the people in ignorance in order that the Priests 
or Ruler might preserve their power, for no Initi- 
ate cares for power except that he may do good to 
humanity. No Initiate seeks to control any people 
or office, the people seek the Initiate. "We seek 
no man, but man seeks us. " Power came not from 
the people but from the possession of supreme 
knowledge, and this knowledge, continually exer- 
cised and exemplified, was the badge of office and 
the sign of authority. To such a Priesthood the 
people rendered most willing obedience. The doors 
of Initiation were open, then as at this time, to all 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 8? 

who had evolved the capacity to "Know, to Dare 
to Do, and to Keep Silent," in regard to that which 
should not be prematurely revealed. 

With the Light of the Great Lodge standing in 
the midst, the Religion of the people was a perfect 
representative of Science and Philosophy, in which 
superstition and idoJatry found no place, hence 
the symmetry in all the Old Wisdom Religions. 
There was reeJly but one Secret Doctrine, but in 
later times, miany Nations had the same Philosopher^ 
but each Nation has its own Grand Suprem.e Lodge, 

The religions of Egypt and Clialdea, as has been 
stated, had back of them the same Secret Doctrine^ 
or Mysteries ; as had been ta^ught in the Great Lodge 
of Atlantis, for it was from there that they were 
transplanted to Egypt, India, Asia and other coun- 
tries. This religion was both Scientific and Philo^ 
sophical. Egypt and Chaldea repeated the folly of 
India, and perished, with the exception of a few 
Initiates who remained true, with the degradation 
of their rehgion. The few who remained true to 
their vows kept the Secret Doctrines in the Secret 
Archives of the Temples and Masters likeHermies, 
Zoroaster, Confucius, and others were secretly 
taught the Secret Doctrines and revived the old 
religion under new names, and often under a dif- 
ferent form of symbohsm. Pythagoras and the 
Schools of the Persian Ma.gi for many centuries 
kept the true light burning and it could always be 
found by those who were truly seeking for it. 

The conquest of Egypt by Cambyses completed 
the ruin cf the land of Pharaohs, and Pythagoras 



88 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

and Plato became the links between the old philos- 
ophy and the Christian Mysteries, together with 
the Jewish Kabalah, derived jointlj^ from the Mys- 
teries of Atlantis, Egypt and Asia. 

From the Essenes, the Schools of Alexandria 
then in all their glorv, from the Kabalah and the 
philosophy of Plato, the Christian Mysteries were 
derived. In fact, the Christian Mysteries were 
none other than the Ancient Mysteries or Secret 
Doctrine, but became known as the Christian Mys- 
teries after the Initiation of Christ by the Essenes. 
During the first three centuries of the present era 
these doctrines flourished openly ; but were finally 
forced to be taught secretly through the conquest 
of Constantine, and then came the dark ages for 
the people. 

The Religion of Jesus was therefore that of the 
Mysteries; it was the same Wisdom -Religion, 
though perhaps the ethical features were more 
pronounced, as being needed among what was called 
"a generation of vipers. " The ethical teachings of 
Jesus in time gave place to Priest-craft and Sacer- 
dotalism; to worldly power, and conquest; and the 
religion, or rather, ceremonialism of Constantine 
was finally succeeded by the '*Holy Inquisition," a 
religion of torture and bloodshed. History is full 
of pretenders in Occultism and Mysticism. Pre- 
tension alone is a sign of ignorance, and the propo- 
sition to "sell the truth " is always a sign of fraud. 
"Every man is worthy of his hire," the teacher 
must be paid for his work. The publisher for his 
books, but for the teachings no price can be paid 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE %9 

in current coin. There P.re many names in history 
that have been covered with obloquy, a,nd their pos- 
sessors charged with fraud and imposition, who 
were genuine Adepts. The seeker should distin- 
guish between self -conviction that comes from tlie 
pretender's own mouth and those accusations that 
come from others and are unsupported by evidence. 
As a fact, the true Master or Initiate, never, under 
any circumstances, makes the claim that he is 
such. The man or icoman that openly claims to be 
either an Initiate^ an Adepts or a Master^ is never 
such, but is simply a pretender. The pretender is 
usually loaded with honors and found rolling in 
wealth, as the reward of deceit and lying, of fraud 
and corruption, which he is shrewd enough to 
conceal from the masses but which he can never 
hide from an Initiate or Master. Man betraj^s his 
character, his heredity, his ideas, and all his past 
life in every lineament of his face, in the pose of his 
body, in his gait, in the lines of his hands, in the 
tones of his voice and in the expression of his eye 
especially. No man possesses character. Charac- 
ter is that which he is, and not something apart 
from himself. One need not be a Master to dis- 
cover all this; he needs only to observe, to think, 
and to reason on what he sees. The individual who 
is really sincere and devout will not fail to recognize 
sincerity and true devotion in an acquaintance or in 
any character in history that possessed these vir- 
tues. Hence the Student of the Sacred or Occult 
Science, though not himself an Adept, learns to 
recognize by unfailing signs those in the present 



90 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

or past who were really Masters and who knew 
the True Wisdom. 

The real Master is often gibbeted by the populace 
and anathematized by the church, because he is 
neither time-serving nor willing to barter the truth 
for gold. 

All along the line of history, from the foundation 
of Atlantis to the present time, may be found those 
who possessed the true Light. Masters who con- 
cealed both their Wisdom and their own identity 
from vulgar notice and foolish praise, they walked 
the earth in the past as now, unseen and unknown 
to the many, but always known to their fellows, 
and to all real seekers after true wisdom. 

These Adepts, or Masters, have, in every age, as 
at the present time, constituted the Great Lodge. 
They were, and are, the Masters of the Fraterni- 
ties. For be it Jcnoion to all those ivho would find the c^ 
LigJit, to all those who would trod' the Path, these Gh-eat " ' 
Lodges exist to-day as they did in the past and Initiates 
Jcnoia that there are more real Masters to-day than ever 
before. Whether they congregate benep^th vaulted 
domes, or meet at stated times, no one would be 
likely to know unless he belongs to the same degree ; 
but one thing is very certain, and that is, that they 
help and bring knowledge to the world when most 
needed and often shape the destinies of Nations. 
They are working to-day in the Vf est as they have 
never done before. They are enabled to work now, 
because the ground has been prepared for them by 

*Se8 the "Beautiful Philosophy of Initiation " by Count St. Vincent, 
for full information concerning this point. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 91 

"He who knoias,^^ and Masonry, although it has 
lost the Key to its own Mysteries, has done much 
to bring this about. HoYf much more could Ma- 
sonry do should it find the Key to its Mysteries? 
Truly, no one would be able to guess. 



Fire-Philosophy 



The Foundation of all True Initiation and all Mystic 
and Occult Fraternities^ as well as the Secret Doc- 
trine and the Ancient Mysteries, 

(^F all the Secret Orders, there is probably more 
J known concerning the Fraternities of the Rosy 
Cross than of any other Order. This is not because 
the Fraternity itself has given so much of its teach- 
ings to the profane world, but on account of the 
writings of Hargrave Jennings, Paschal Beverly 
Randolph, Lord Bulwer Lytton, Honore de Balsac, 
Freeman B. Dowd and others. In one of the Mani- 
festoes issued in the year 1871, by the then Supreme 
Master of the Fraternity— Dr. P. B. Randolph, it 
is admitted that the very foundation of the Frater- 
nity is the Philosophy of Fire. He says : 

" .... It is urged against us that we 'Believe in. 
and Practice Magic;' we admit the fact: we cer- 
tainly do,— the pure white, bright, effulgent, radi- 
antly glorious Magic of the Human MZ^,— through 
and by which alone^ human passions are made to 
correct themselves, and by which alone, otherwise 
defenseless Woman is fully armed against the 
coarse brutality of thousands of misnamed 'men 
and husbands;' and this is a purely Christie power 
too, an integrant of the early Christie faith,— dead 



94 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

here, and buried nearly everywhere else, beneath 
mountams of gabble-dust, deserts of error. It is 
further charged that we have 'certain quite extra- 
ordinary Esoteric, or Secret Doctrines.' We ad- 
mit the fact, and the animus is apparent from that 
other fact, namely, 'that these Secret Doctrines 
are only divulged to the pure, virtuous, and worthy. ' 
Our assailants /a^iZe(i in all their schemes to pene- 
trate these Mysteries, and the inference is plain, 
nor can even the disaffected fail to see ' the reason 
why!' Now, however, we herewith present some 
of these 'Secret Doctrines.'" 

Holding as we do, that Deity dwells within the 
cryptic portals of the luminous worlds, and that the 
lamp that lights it is Love Supreme. 

We hold that no poiver ever comes to man through 
the intellect .... That Goodness alone is Power, 
and that that pertains to the heart only, hence that 
Power comes only to the Soul through Love (not 
lust, mind you, but Love), the underlying, Primal 
Fire-Life, sub-tending the bases of Being, — the for- 
mative flowing floor of the worlds, — the true sensm^ 
of which is the beginning of the road to personal 
power. Love lieth at the foundation, and is the 
synonym of life and strength and clingingness. . . . 

Holding, as we do, that Deity dwells within the 
Shadow, behind the everlasting Flame, — the amazing 
glories of which minds have confounded with the 
very God, — we declare All things, especially the hu- 
man Soul, to he a form of Fire : that man is not the only 
intelligence in nature, but that there are, and the 
aerial spaces abound with, multiform intelligences, 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 95 

having their conscious origin in Aeth^ as man has his 
in matter; and that there are grades of these, tower- 
ing away in infinite series of hierarchies, human, and 
ultra-human, to an unimaginable Eterne. We hold 
that the soul is a polar world of White Fire within the 
human body; that its negative only resides within 
the brain as a general dwelling; that in dreamless 
sleep it goes to the solar plexus to impart stores of 
Life-Fire to the body; in dream it visits (by sight 
and rapport) other scenery, and that all dreams 
have a determinate meaning and purpose 

We hold that the other pole of the soul is situated 

within the genital system The superior pole 

of the soul is in direct magnetic and Ethereal con- 
tact with the Soul of Being; the foundation- Fhx of 
the Universe; with all that vast domain underlying 
increase, growth, emotion, beauty, power, heat, 
energy; the sole and base of being, the subtending 
Love^ or Fire-iioor of Existence. Hence through 
Love man seizes directly on all that is, and is in 
actual contact and rapport with all and singular 
every being ih^t feels and Loves within the confines 
of God's habitable universe 

" . . Declaring that true manhood is more or less 
en rapport with one or more of the Upper Hierar- 
chies of Intelligent Potentialities, earth-born and 
not earth-born,t^e believe there are means ivhereby a per- 
son may become associated ivith, and receive instructions 
from them. More than that ; we believe in talismans ; 
that it is possible to construct and wear them, and 
that they emit a peculiar light, discernable across 
the gulfs of Space by these intelhgent powers, just 



96 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

as we discern a diamond across a playhouse; that 
such signals to the beholders, and that they will, 
and do cross the chasmal steeps to save, succor, 
and assist the wearers, just as a good brother here 
flies to the relief of him who shall give the grand 
hailing- signs of distress 

'' . . God, the Soul of the Universe, is positiveheat, 
Celestial Fire; the aura of Deity (God-od) is Love, the 
prime element of all power, the external i^?:r6-sphere, 
the iuforming and formative pulse of matter. The 
induction is crystalhne; for it follows that whoso 
hath most love. —whether its expression be coarse 
or fine, cultured or rude,— hath, therefore, most of 
God in him or her; the element of time being com- 
petent to the perfection of all refining influences 
over the ocean, if not upon the hither side. ..." 

From the quotations made of the Rosicrucian 
Manifesto, it will be plain to the student that the 
Fire-Philosophy is the very foundation of the Fra- 
ternity which was founded in the Temple of Atlan- 
tis and has continued, under various names, up to 
the present time. An Rosicrucian says :— 

''Justice is so late of arrival to all original think- 
ers— the terms of prejudice, and of astonishment 
(not in the good sense), are so long in falling off 
fi^om profound researches — that even now, the 
Rosicriicians — in other words, the Paracelsians or 
Magnetists — are totally ignored as the arch-chem- 
ists, to whose deep thoughts, and unrelaxing labors, 
modern science is indebted for most of its truths. 

As astrology (not the juggles of the stars, but the 
true exploration, seeking the method of being, and 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 97 

of working, of the glittering habitants of space): 
as astrology was the mother of astronomy, so is 
the lore of the Hermetic Brethren (miscalled in 
only one of their names — and that the popular 
Rosicrucians) — the groundwork of all present 
philosophy. On its applied side, Rosicrucianism is 
the very science which is so familiar and so valuable. 
But as the Hermetic (Rosicrucian) Beliefs are a 
great religion, they of course, have their popular 
adaptations; and, in consequence, there is a myth- 
ology to them. There must always be a machinery 
(symbolism) to every faith, through which ^ it may 
be known; and the mistake of people is in accepting 
the, childish machinery and the coarse (but fitly) 
colored mythology of a religion for the religion 

itself, and all of it. " 

*',Mystical, fantastical, and transcendental— nay, 
impossible — as the studies and objects of the Rosi- 
crucians seem in these modern, ^ ultra-practical 
days, it is forgotten that the truths of contemporan- 
eous science are all based on the dreams of the old 
thinkers. Out. of natural philosophy, the occult 
brethren sought th§ spirits of natural philosophy, 
and to this inner heaven— so unlike ordinary life — 
through, purifications, through invocations, through 
humbling and prayers, through penances to break 
the terms of body with the world, through fumiga- 
tions and incensing to rise up another world about 
them, and to place themselves en rapport with the 
inhabitants of it, through the suspension of the 
senses, and thereby to the opening of other senses 
— to the shutting-out of one state, in order to the 
7 



98 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

passing into another state, — ^to all this the Rosicru- 
cians sought to reach." 

What is now known as Hermetic Doctrine is but 
a part of the Rosicrucian system, a branch of that 
Fraternity. Their teachings concerning Fire are 
identical with the Rosicrucian Doctrine concerning 
same. There is but a slight difference in the foun- 
dation of these Orders and that difference is to be 
found in their doctrine of "Conservation of Energy," 
according to their teachings: "Fire is at once the 
great purifier and separator of elements. It is hell 
for devils, but on the pure spirit it works no injury. 
For pure spirit is also the spirit of the Fire. The 
whole world must be purified by Fire or the inten- 
sity of true Love for the new dispensation. When 
we recall the fact that Pure Spirit is also icwe, we 
see what love really is, and will be to us and the 
whole world. 

"Like all other things he touches, the undevel- 
oped man has constantly acted to draw down every- 
thing belonging to the higher conception of sex. 
He forgets it is the direct emanation of the Divine 
creative thought. All the highest, purest, and 
sweetest thought leads up to the manifestation of 
the sex condition and sex forces, as the Alpha 
and Omega of both desire and fulfillment. It holds 
within itself, the whole Divine statement of Being: 
"and God said: Let there be and there was." In 
it there are life and death ; the out-putting and in- 
drawing." 

"All the great lessons of living and acting are 
held in this three-lettered word of unperfected ac- 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 99 

tivity. The Law of Love — God expression in man, 
holds its basis of manifestation on the health activi* 
ty of the sex function. The beginning and the end 
of life, if we so will it, is held here. The moment 
of conclusion is the beginning of life. It is also the 
moment of death — the dead point at which the 
whole organism enters into the realms of dissolu^ 
tion, as it is ever striving to do. But the great sex- 
force and body of life carries always forward and 
beyond^ so there shall be no dwelling within the 
House of Death. 

"It is in this ^ House of the Fire of Life^ wherein is 
manifested the completion of the Divine plan. It 
is there the Was becomes the Is, and the is — U 
passes into the ShaU Be. It is through this differ- 
entiation, that the great trinity manifests itself un- 
to itself. Verily, the kingdom of Heaven — the 
Power of God — ^lies within us, for the Transmission 
of Life. His knowledge of its origin is the point, 
at which His Supremacy assumes for itself un- 
questioned authority — the Omnipotence of the One 
only Unity. Zove, Sex^ and Fire are one. The 
Three in One."* 

At the present day in Sweden, on the first of 
May — the opening or germination of the the year — 
the peasantry, as they do all over the North at cer^ 
tain times, light fires. A candle is lighted by all 
devout Catholics on Christmas Eve, and is kept 
burning, in memory and reminder of the mysteri- 
ous Incarnation, until the dawning of the real day 

♦See, "Divine Alchemy." 



100 THE PHILOSOPHYOF FIRE 

of the Blessed Nativity. The Yiile-Log, whose 
bright blazing is of so much moment, and with the 
last brand of which, most carefully and supersti- 
tiou sly laid aside for the pui-pose, the next year's 
Christmas i^i?^e is to be lighted, follows the same 
rule. The Christrbas Tree, th^ drigin of which is 
lost in the 'inists of tradition, and which Teutonic 
emblem (time out of mind employed ih Germany) 
is^ now transposed into 'England^' thou^ witihoiirt 
the slightest suspicion of its Pagan mfea-ning, is thB; 
Mystic Northern sacrifice, and the attfestatibii^ In 
its multitudinous blazing candles, to the Genius -or- 
God of the Fire,'' The toys representing all the 
things of man, and of the earth, which are suspend- 
ed among the boughs, in its mystic light, are the 
sacrifice of all the good things of the world, and all 
the products of the Creative Fiat, as in surrender 
and acknowledgement, back to the UfiMown Living 
Spirit, or ImmortalProdu^er, who hath chosen i^ire 
as his symbol and his shadow. ' 

■ ' If the reader will refer to the crest of His Royal 
Highness Prince Albert, he will find the Mystic, 
Magic horns distinctly set up. The reproduction 
of the ever-recurring symbol which is recognizable 
as horns, wings, or otherwise in the head-pieces of 
his ancestors of the North. The rough Runic Sol- 
diers who, in their barbarian incursions, overturned 
(in the Roman beliefs), and buried in the ruins of 
the Empire, a faith identical, in its secrets, with 
their own. All-ignorant of the fact that the sym- 
bols of both spoke but the same tale, the original, 
Magic, Fire-Faith. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 101 

**The laurel- wreath around the head of heroes and 
emperors^ — accorded alone to the great conquerers, 
the Imperator, or the poet (majestic Triplicate!), 
not only mark out the line, and denote the place of 
the organs of the highest intellectual and god-like 
faculties in the brows of the human being, but prove 
the knowledge of the ancients of phrenology, and 
represent the original starry radius — that which 
symbohcally invests the head of all the Gods. It 
speaks the Spirit- Flame or radius — magnetic and 
supernatural — intensifying to its real magico-gen- 
erative power in a circle of intolerable light, about 
the head : in which Mystic Light all Magic and sor- 
cery, as well as all Sainthood, was supposed, by 
the Rosicrucians, to be possible, in accordance with 
the laws of the super-natural Pire-World. Crowns, 
garlands, wreaths, all the insignia of dignity that 
encircle the head ; and all passing, be it remarked, 
over the physico-phrenological places of the facul- 
ties of '* causality, comparison, wonder, and imagi- 
nation," and in tracing them along, disclosing and 
glorifying all the bodily points of the means of the 
greatness of man, — mitres and priestly head cover- 
ings, the tonsure of the sacredotes, freeing the 
sacred circle of the intellect (within which may the 
terrifically grand, very apprehension of God, him- 
self, be realized): from the barbarian and the de- 
graded — nay, brute-like growth of hair, the very 
investiture and most closely branding confession, 
and the complete and irresistible conviction, of the 
beasts — most abundant, and the grossest, there 
were, in the scale, lowest ; — sceptres, wands, priest- 
71 



102 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

ly staves or crosiers, batons and maces: — all these 
marks of rank, with the original disk, orb, mound, 
surmounting, with the Mystic symbol of the Cross, 
the loyal rods or sceptres of the European mon- 
arch s : — o2l these fm^ms are hut the changes and repro- 
ductioa of the rod of the Magtcian, He whose creed was 
the Fire-creed^ and whose secret means of working upon 
nature ivas the mysterious ^^ Sorcerer^ s Sign,^^ displayed 
upon, and through which stretched — he declared — the 
^^ shows ^^ of the worlds, and converse with the real Sub- 
strata of which ^ he pronounced^ laas by spells, as spirit- 
visages ivere only to be won to the sight, or through en- 
chantments. 

It has already been shown that both Krishna and 
Orpheus taught the Christian Mysteries. Buddha, 
another founder of Religion, also taught these Mys- 
teries and the Secret Doctrine, and Buddhism is 
nothing short of Fire Philosophy. 

"The subject of Buddhism is the obscurest in the 
whole round of learned inquisition." Says Har- 
grave Jennings: "This old, and (beyond all meas- 
ure) the broadest and the sublimest of all the re- 
ligions of the East; — this ancient and really philo- 
sophical belief — demands a capacity to grasp ab- 
stractions before its principles can be understood. 
Men who argue from effect to cause — men who ap- 
prehend cause at all — that is, cause as gathered 
from an experience derivable from being; — ca^nnot 
but fail in attaining to the disclosure of it. Materi- 
a^lism is a constant charge urged upon the Budd- 
hist. In one sense, materialism is correctly as- 
sured of him. For Buddhism denounces all being, 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 103 

apart from form, as impossible. It is the purest 
Spinozism. It is identical with it. As all forms 
of true philosophy — whether Grecian, Egyptian, 
Eastern — all that rest upon a truth that, in this 
sense is truer than nature, — must rest upon Spin- 



ozism 



Accepted with the literal eye, the tenets of the 
Indian theology, in reference to its Buddhist ground- 
work, appear to present the usual average of myth- 
ologic fabling. But we judge upon the means of ex- 
pression, not upon the thing expressed. That, in 
the very terms of expression, has escaped. As the 
reconcilement of that which 'knows no sense, ' with 
apprehension through the means of sense alone, 
must always be impossible. Man's very being — 
that is the laws by which he is, or his mind, shut 
him up, as it were, within themselves (or itself), as 
in a prison. And all his knowledge of things comes 
from that Light shining ivithin his prison — his mind. 
Within that radius, the Light is perfect and he him- 
self perfect. But what guesses he, or can he know, 
of the great Light without? That light, to him^ 
may be no light. Light is material. Being, itself, 
only necessary to matter, and the life of it, or the 
soul of the world. 

''So taught the Persian believers in the one Uni- 
versal groundwork of light — the soul, or ultimate 
principle of everything to be known — which is the 
religion of the Magi, of Zoroaster, of the Guebres, 
of the modern Indian Par sees as of the middle a^ge 
European Bohemians; the remains of whose Fire- 
Palaces, or Fire-Temples, are yet to be seen, crumb- 



104 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

ling, indeed, into their own god, light, around the 
reverend ?ind time-battered, as well as war bat- 
tered, Prague. 

" Man is the center to himself in his light of mind, 
shining as in his castle and prison of body. The 
forceful outer day — the god of the universal circle 
of things -once, in its violent inquest, fixed of a 
cranny and penetrating, would annihilate the tem- 
porary possessor of the tenement, and absorb all 
within (that is, him), to itself— laws to light; organ- 
ism to broad being. Until reincorporate; that is 
concrete. 

"The whole round world is as a microcosm, whose 
wonders are exhaustless; whose beauties are be- 
yond expression; whose changes, whose decay, 
whose recommitment into new forms is as the 
ceaseless revolvement of the Inexpressible Glory. 
Through the sea floors and their multitudinous 
mimic continents, fruitful of moving life, fecund 
with their tree-growths and their semi sylvan, semi- 
oceanic vegetation; through the clouds of the seas 
that rest or roll over them, through which speed 
the winged ships as golden (sunlighted) specks; 
through the hollow-crusted earth and its rigid rocks 
—earth torn and battered like a battle-beaten man 
of Eternal War, as it circles its resounding way 
amidst the roads of the lighted stars, 'baring' to 
the changing Sun, and to the cold, renewing moon, 
its ploughed side, globing up, still defiant, with the 
wounds of the contentions of the centuries and with 
the retardation of the space-forces;- -through the 
'built- work' of Nature, in short runs the ever cour- 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 105 

sing Inner Spirit, which forces, in its stupendous 
track (comet-Hke) the bordering matter into Flame 
—to Life, 

''Is not all the world a woven tissue— wizard-col- 
ored— of which the creative sun strikes the spangles 
into sparkling; stains, prismatically, with the rose- 
hues of being, or the blues of decay— or, rather^ 
change? Roars not old ocean with his caves; as 
the Nereid music swelleth or sinketh, to fascination, 
loudly or faintly through its shell? Fires, and 
smokes, and springs, and steam attest the attenuate 
bulk, spun through the hands of the Great Mag- 
netic Life, or by the power of the Earth-God, into 
tissues. What is as the core, and the mighty heart 
of the great world, but the spouting Fire? What 
are the magnificent air-shapes of our atmosphere; 
what the crossed cloud-platforms of our sky; what 
the reduplicate and multiplicate fog- work and floc- 
culence of the Western or the Eastern Heavens, 
when the golden or the burning light is poured 
through the heaped wonder-worlds of the Magician 
of the Great Air;— what should be all the cloud-set- 
tings or our sky, but as the precipitate, and dress, 
of the mere 'used-up-matter;'— glorious to our sen- 
ses, as even all the refuse is? And if Fire be, in its 
own nature— so to speak— but the roaring-back ^ 
Illuminate, of Nature from the real unto the unreal 
(as which the Magi teach, and as which the worshippers 
of the element of Fire believe), then the very excess of 
material light shall be but as the very excess of the 
dense matter, remonstrating (as it were), itself the 
brighter as it is, in itself, the blacker. Nor are 



106 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

these the vagaries of Philosophers, but the world- 
old persuasions, when the vanity of knowledge had 
not made a base 'machine of wheels' of the world! 

"Let us rest with this sublime assurance. That 
the Kingdom of God iieth much nearer to us than 
consists in our vain imagination of possibilities. 
Yea, is at our door! God on our Threshold! We 
all the while— Peter-like— denying him. Denying 
the Spirits because we cannot feel the Spirit!" 

"The Old Buddhists— as equalJy as the ancient 
believers in the Doctrine of the Universal Spiritual 
Fire— held that Spirit Light was the floor or basis 
of all created things. The material side or com- 
plement of this Spiritual Light being Fire, into 
which element all things could be rendered; and 
which (or Heat) was the motive of all things that 
are. They taught that matter or mind— as the su- 
perflux— as the sum of sensations, or as natural 
and unreal shows of their various kinds— were 
piled, as layer on layer, or tissue on tissue, on this 
immutable and Immortal floor or ground- work of 
Divine Ilame, the soul of the World. 

Such is the magnificent view of the Buddhists 
of Creation. Is it any wonder that it has more vo- 
taries than any other system of Religion? Fire, 
Love— God, is the foundation of this Philosophy, as 
of all other true Philosophies and it is for this rea- 
son that it must endure forever, until Universal 
Brotherhood is a fact. 

The emotion, intensity, mind-agitation, thought, 

ccording to the powers of the unit or the lifting 

heavenward:— or as the dots or dimples in the ever- 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 107 

flowing onwave of being: were— to speak in the 
familiar sense— "as impressions down," perhaps 
through and through its covers, upon this hving 
floor of Spiritual Flame, The escape of which was 
the magnetism— magnetism oi the body: supersen- 
tial force, or miracle, of the spirit. 

"The Paracelsists or Theosophists of the six- 
teenth century were also Pire-Philosophers and 
were known as such. Theosophy we have at the 
present day although their teachings may be slight- 
ly changed at this time. 

"The Fire-Philosophers, or PMlosophi per ignem^ 
were a sect of Philosophers who appeared towards 
the close of the sixteenth century. They were 
known throughout every country of Europe and 
declared that the intimate Essenes of natural things 
were only to be known by the trying effects of Fire, 
directed in a chemical process. The Theosophists, 
also, insisted that human reason was a da^ngerous 
and deceitful guide; that no real progress could be 
made in knowledge, or in religion, by it, and that 
to all vital, that is, supernatural purpose, it was a 
vain thing, they taught that Divine and supernat- 
ural exaltation was the only means of arriving at 
Truth.* Their name of Paracelsists was derived 
from Paracelsus,** the eminent physician and chem- 
ist, who was the chief Philosopher of this sect. In 
England, Robert Pludd was their great advocate 

^Seethe " B<^aiitiful Philosophy of Initiation." 

** After the '• r'ama Frsterrjitj^i is : oi . a DiFcoTery of the Frarernity o 
the n;c;St L;iu;dab!e Ordrr of the Vio'^y Cross "' was Is^^iicd by Chrisiian 
Rosencrutz, they became kiiown as RoFiciucitDF. See "The Rosicrii- 
ciaus ; their Teachings," 



108 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

and exponent. Rivier, who wrote in France ; Severi- 
nus, an author of Denmark; Kunrath, an eminent 
physician of Dresden; and Daniel Hoffman, profes- 
sor of Divinity in the University of Helmstadt, have 
also treated largely on Paracelsus, and on his sys- 
tem. 

"Akin to the school of the Ancient Fire Believers, 
and of the Magnetists of a later period," says Dr. 
Ennermoser, "of the same cast as these speculators 
and searchers into the mysteries of nature, draw- 
ing from the same well, are the Theosophists of the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These prac- 
ticed chemistry, by which they asserted that they 
could explain the profoundest secrets of nature. 
As they strove, above all earthly knowledge, after 
the divine, and sought the Divine Light and Fire^ 
through which all men can acquire the true wisdom, 
they were called the Fire-Philosophers. As a great 
general principle, the Theosophists called the Soul 
a Fire, taken from the eternal ocean of Light. " 

Hargrave Jennings, the Rosicrucian and Philoso- 
pher, says : "We may thus sum our historical exami- 
nation. That, at every turn of our inquiry, we 
meet Light. At every cross-road, as it were, of 
our laborious journey — of our philosophical pil- 
grimage—we encounter this pertinacious and ever- 
following Light. Not only at birth, but as taking a 
prominent part in the torch-celebration at marriage, 
and again, and more impressively, at death and in 
the ceremonials of sepulture, the panthom of Light 
never fails. It is the more dimly or the brighter— 
the more gloriously and the more cheerfully celeb- 



THE PHILOSOPilY OF PtIe 



rant, or the more awfully full everywhere disclosed* 
As everything, it must — though disguised— be 
everything? What may mean this concentrate^ 
Resplendent Fifure? This ever-following myth? 
This terrible, and yet this Grand Angel, found at 
the couch-side at our bith, accompanying us, as the 
best and most distaut sacrifice, to the altar of pres- 
entation, where pur mother Ipows in hfer thtoksgiv" 
ings to the Holy God who has helped her in her time 
of need; aiid who has equally made birth^und life, 
aiid deathjand as equally vouchsafed safety in mch 
and all? What is this that presseth in — chief est bf 
guests— at our marriages, in all the splendor of his 
yellowest glow ; and waiting, with his face shrouded, 
with his pale lights and abounding in glipstly tapers 
—though in the glory of the hope of heaven!— at 
that last, solemn scene, where the very cause of the 
sable royalties— black (imperial, then, alike to poor 
and rich in the common Spirit-threshold upon 
wiiich we all stand)— is as the smallest, and very 
often the least thou ght-of, of all the show? What, 
to conclude, is this Fire which is so constantly 
about us, and of which we think so little and know 
so little, but which seems over-whelmiiigly much? 
What is this wondrous, universal Element, or least 
proveable Soul of the World, which hath been so 
significantly, and yet so unsuspectedly, mythed, 
universally, through the intelligent ages? What is 
this Magic reflection which is glassed through 
Time. We ask thinkers for an answer. But only 
out of their meditations— only out of the im- 
possibility of denial— do we hope to wring the 



110 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

confession of the Divine Spirit that is in the Fire. 

'*0f course we mean not, in this Real Fire, but a 
something of which the Beat Fire is an Image. Being 
the imparticled spirit, in which everything is at one, as 
in which everything is possible. In this sense, real things 
(in the World) are the things only unreal. And unreal 
things (out of the World) are the only real. 

Through two baptismals must the Initiate pass. 
Through the baptism of both Fire and Water. The 
mysterious meaning of baptism by water is a sym- 
bolism prevailing through all faiths, Heathen and 
Christian. It is that of the earliest traditional or 
the Pythagorean Transmigration, not abjudged as 
by its vulgar reading, but as signifying the onward 
dissolution, into nothingness, of being, that is, of 
this being, through the farthest separated (save air, 
in which man always is, and therefore always is 
baptised) matter— water! This, therefore, is the 
only element for a rite. Holy water, and ablution, 
also signify the same although the church has lost 
the meaning. Thence, as from that next-loosest of 
matter— water, the only possible symbol for a rite. 
Man is delivered into the farther, supernatural, 
airy changes, where matter ceases— loosening ut- 
terly from above him. And, then, the Spirit of 
Fire, begins, taking up the matter-undulations. 
This is the freedom into the foundation, or inspir- 
ing Light;— the Nirvana of the Buddhists;— the God 
Flame of the Magi;— the Holy Spirit of the Christ- 
ians;— the everything, out of this state, and the 
nothing in it, of all religions. Life— nay, all exist- 
ence—being considered as a Purgatory of a severer 



THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 111 

or a more assuasive order. And, therefore, being 
evil— or God's Shadow— for the very reason of its 
being Life— or consciousness at all. All conscious- 
ness being defect— all the outside world being evil. 
This is the Mystic meaning of that text in the 
Holy Testament where St. John declares: *'I indeed 
baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that 
comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I 
am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with 
the Holy Ghost, and with Fire. " 



Fire-Phi!osophy 



The Foundation of all True Initiation and all Mystic 
and Occult Fraternities, as well as the Secret Doc- 
trine and the Ancient Mysteries, 



(concluded.) 



Sacred Fire 



THE appearance of God to mortals seems al- 
ways to have been in brightness and great 
glory, whether He was angry and in displeasure, 
or benign and kind. These appearances are often 
mentioned in Scriptures. When God appeared on 
Mount Sinai, it is said, ''The Lord descended upon 
it in Fire" (Exodus xix. 18). And when Moses re- 
peats the history of this to the children of Israel, 
he says: ''The Lord spake unto you out of the 
midst of the Fire" (Deuteronomy iv. 12). So it 
was when the Angel of the Lord appeared to Moses 
in a flame of fireoutof the midst of the bush: "The 
bush burned with Fire, and the bush was not con- 
sumed" (Exodus iii. 3). The ax)pearance of the 
Angel of God's presence, or that Divine Person who 
represented God, were always in brightness; or, in 
8 



114 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

other words, the Shechinah was always surrounded 
with glory. This seems to have given occasion to 
those of old to imagine fire to be what God dwelt in. 
''Whether it was that any fire proceeded from 
God, and burnt up the oblation in the first sacrifices, 
as some ingenious men have conjectured, we know 
not. It is certain that in after ages this was the 
case. We are sure that a fire from the Lord con- 
sumed upon the altar the burnt offering of Aaron 
(Leviticus ix. 24); and so it did the sacrifice of Gide- 
on, "both the flesh and the unleavened cakes" 
(Judges vi. 21). When David built an altar unto 
the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace-of- 
ferings, and called upon the Lord, He answered 
him from heaven by Fire, upon the altar of burnt 
offerings" (Chronicles xxi. 26). The same thing 
happened at the dedication of Solomon's temple: 
*'The Fire came down from heaven, and consumed 
the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory 
of the Lord filled the house" (2 Chronicles vii. 1). 
And much about a hundred years afterwards, when 
Elijah made that extraordinary sacrifice in proof 
that Baal was no god, '*The Fire of the Lord fell 
and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, 
and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the 
water that was in the trench" (1 Kings xviii. 38). 
And if we go back long before the times of Moses, 
as early as Abraham's days, we meet with an in- 
stance of the same sort: "It came to pass that 
when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a 
smoking furnace and a burning lamp, that passed 
between these pieces " (Genesis xv. 17). 



THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE ll5 

'*The first appearance of God, then, bein^ in 
glory — or, which is the same thing, in hght or fire 
— and He showing His acceptance of sacrifices in 
so many instances by consuming them with fire, 
hence it was that the Eastern people, and particu' 
larly the Persians, fell into the worship of fire itself, 
or rather they conceived fire to be the symbol of 
God's presence, and they worshiped God in, or by^ 
fire. Prom the Assyrians, or Chaldaeans, or Per- 
sians, this worship was propagated southward 
among the Egyptians, and westward among the 
Greeks; and by them it was brought into Italy, 
The Greeks were wont to meet together to worship 
their Prytaneia, and there they consulted for the 
public Good; and there was a constant fire kept up- 
on the altar, which was dignified by the name of 
Vesta by some. The fire itself was properly Vesta ; 

and so Ovid : 

"Nee te aliud Vestam, quam vivatn intelli^ere flammam." 

The Prytaneia were thea^r^a of the temples, where- 
in a fire was kept that was never suffered to go out* 
On the change in architectural forms from the pyra- 
midal (or the horizontal) to the obeliscar (or the up- 
right, or vertical,) the flames were transferred from 
the altars, or cubes, to the summits of the typical 
uprights, or towers; or to the tops of the candles, 
such as we see them used now in Catholic worship, 
and which are called "tapers," from their tapering 
or pyramidal form, and which are supposed always 
to indicate the Divine presence of influence. This, 
through the symbolism that there is in the Living 
Light, which is the last exalted show of fluent or of 



116 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

inflamed brilliant matter, passing off into the un- 
known and unseen world of celestial light (or Occult 
Fire), to which all the forms of things tend, and in 
which even idea itself passes from recognition as 
meaning, and evolves- — spring up, as all flame doeSj 
to escape, and to WING away. 

'* Vesta, or the fire, was worshiped in circular 
temples, which were the images, or the miniatures, 
of the "temple" of the world, with its dome, or cope, 
of stars. It was in the ATRIA of the temples, and 
in the presence of and before the above-mentioned 
lights, and the forms of ceremonial worship were 
always observed. It is certain that Vesta was 
worshiped at Troy; and Aeneas brought her into 
Italy: 

" maDibus vittas, Vestamque potentem, AEternumque adytis 
effert penetralibus Ignem. ' — AEneid^ ii. 298. 

Numa settled an order of Virgin Priestesses, 
whose business and care it was constantly to main- 
tain the Holy Fire. And long before Numa's day, 
we find it not only customary, but honorable, among 
the Albans to appoint the best-born virgins to be 
Priestesses of Vesta, and to keep up the constant, 
unextinguished fire. 

It is from this that sprang the Catholic Vestals so 
well known throughout all civilized nations. This 
worship was all purity in its beginning but like 
many other pure Religions, it has been abused to 
such an extent that the underlying principle is not 
recognizable. The foundation of Fire worship is 
in God and no man can say that it is a heathen re- 
ligion. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 117 

'*When Virgil speaks (AEbeid, iv. 200) of larbas, 
in Africa, as building a hundred tempMs and a hxm- 
dred altars, he says: 

"vigilemquesacraverat fngjem,Excubian Divum aeternas" — 
that he had *'concentratf^d a fire that never went 
out." And he calls these temples and these lights, 
or this fire, the ^'Perpetual Watches,'' of ''Watch- 
Lights,'' or proof of the presence, of the Gods, By 
which expressions he tneans, that the places and things 
were constantly protected and solemnized where fiuch 
lights burned, and that the celestials, w angel-defertders, 
''camped," as it were, and were sure to be met with 
thickly, where these flames upon the altars, and these 
torches or lights about the temples, ivere studiously atid 
incessantly maintained, ^ ^ 

There is a mighty truth in this and the Occultist 
or Mystic should profit by these things. It is his 
duty while in "practice" to have not only a small 
light burning but incense as well for where the 
light and incense is, the impure spirits or Elemen- 
tals will not enter while it is undergoing the "driU" 
that leads towards to the Development. Again, 
"when you see the Light Listen to the Voice of the 
Light " has a great meaning. The Catholic Church 
has a mighty truth in its burning candles and man- 
kind will learn the truth of this in the coming ages. 

"Thus the custom seems to have been general 
from the earliest antiquity to maintain a constant 
fire, as conceivirg the Gods present there. And 
this was not only the opinion of the inhabitants in 
Judaea, but it extended all over Persia, Greece, 
Italy, Egypt, and most other nations of the world. 

i I 



118 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

Even Masonry of the present age will have no Initiation 
without its Lighted tapers. WHY? 

"Porphyry imagined that the reason why the 
most ancient mortals kept up a constant, ever-burn- 
ing fire in honor of the immortal Gods was because 
Fire was most like the Gods. He says that the an- 
cients kept an unextinguished fire in their temples 
to the Gods because it was most like them. Fire 
was not like the Gods, but it was what they ap- 
peared in to mortals. And so the true God always 
appeared in brightness and glory ; yet no one would 
say that brightness was most like the true God, 
but was most like the Shechinah, in which God ap- 
peared. And hence the custom arose of keeping 
up an unextinguished fire in the ancient temples. 

"God, then, being wont to appear in Fire, and 
being conceived to dwell in Fire, the notion spread 
universally, and was universally admitted. First, 
then, it was not at all out of the way to think of en- 
gaging in friendship with God by the same means 
as they contracted friendship with one another. 
And since they to whom God appeared saw Him ap- 
pear in Fire, and they acquainted other with such 
His appearances, He was conceived to dwell in Fire. 
By degrees, therefore, the world came to be over- 
curious in the fire that was constantly to be kept up, 
and in things to be sacrificed; and they proceeded 
from one step to another, till at length they filled 
up the measure of their aberrations, which were in 
reality instigated by their zeal, and by their intense 
desire to mitigate the displeasureof their divinities 
— for religion was much more intense as a feeling 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 119 

in earlier days — by passing into dreadful ceremon- 
ies in regard to this fire, which they reverenced 
as the last possible physical form of divinity; not 
only in its grandeur and power, but also in its pur- 
ity. It arose from this view that human sacrifices 
came to be offered to the deities in many parts of 
the world, particularly in Phoenicia, and in the col- 
onies derived from thence to Africa and other places. 
In the intensity of their minds, children were sac- 
rificed by their parents, as being the best and dear« 
est oblations that could be made, and the strongest 
arguments that nothing ought to be withheld from 
God. This was expiation for that sad result, the 
consequence of the original curse, issuing from the 
fatal curiosity concerning the bitter fruit of that 
forbidden "Tree," 

"whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all 
our woe, With loss of Eden," 

according to Milton. That, sense of shame in all 
its forms lesser and greater, and with aU the refer- 
^^ ences inseparably allied to propagation in all its 
multitudinous cunning (so to speak), wherever the 
condemned material tissues reach, puzzled the 
thoughtful ancients. This they considered the con- 
victed "Adversary," or "Lucifer," "Lord of Light" 
— that is, material light — "Eldest son of the Morn- 
ing." Morning, indeed! dawning with its beams 
from behind that forbidden Tree of Knowledge of 
good and Evil. What is this shame, urged the phil- 
osophers, this reddening, however good and beauti- 
ful, and especially the ornament of the young and 
of children, who are newest from the real, glowing 



120 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

countenance of Deity, with the bloom of the first 
angehc world scarcely yet fading frorn off their 
cherub faces, gradually darkening an€ -hardening 
in the degradation and iniquity of being here as 
presences in the world, although the most glorious 
amidst the forms of flesh? What is this shame, 
which is the characteristic singly of human crea- 
tures? All other creatures are sinless in this re- 
spect, and know not the feeling of that— correctly 
looked at— strange thing which men call '^shanie,-' 
something which it is not right that th^ sun ever 
should see, and therefore stirring the blood, and 
reddening the face, and confusing the speech^ and 
causing man to hang down his head, and to hide 
himself, as if guilty of something; even as our guil- 
ty first parents, having lost the unconsciousness of 
their child-like, innocent first state — ^that of sinless 
virginity — hid themselves in the umbrage of Para- 
dise, all at once conTicted to the certainty that they 
must hide, because they were exposed in the face 
of that original intention regarding them having 
been broken. 

'* Suffer little children to come unto Me, and for- 
bid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. " 

**That is, the innocent children should come up 
for salvation, who, though suffering under the mor» 
tal liability incurred by all flesh in that first sin 
(and incident in the first fall, which has empoisoned 
all nature), are yet free by the nature of that un- 
grown possibility, and from their immature state. 
They know not the shame of that condition adult, 
and therefore they bear not the badge of men. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE l2£ 

"The pyramidal or triangular form which Fire 
assumes in its ascent to heaven is in the monohthie 
ty]bology used to signify the great generative power/ 
We have only to look at Stonehenge, Eliora, the 
Babel- towers' of Central America, the gigantic ruins 
scattered all over Tartary and India, to see how 
gloriously they symbolised the majesty of the Su- 
preme. To these upright, obelisks, or LITHOI, of 
the old world, including the Bethel, or Jacob's Pil- 
lar, or Pillow, raised in the plain of "Luz," we will 
add, as the commemorative or reminding shape of 
the Fire, the Pyramids of Egypt, the Millenarius^ 
Gnomon,Mete-Stone,orMark,called London-Stone,'* 
all Crosses raised at the junction of four roads, all 
Market-crosses, the Round-Towers of Ireland, and. 
in all the changeful aspects of their genealogy, all 
spires and towers, in their grand hieroglyphic 
proclamation, aU over the world, 

Fire-Philosophy of the Persians 

"As a great general principle, the Theoso* 
phists caUed the Soul a Fire, taken from the eter- 
nal ocean of Light. 

*'In regard to the supernatural — using the word 
in its widest sense— it may be said that "all the 
difficulty in admitting the strange things told us 
lies in the non-admission of an internal causal world 
as absolutely real: it is said, in intellectually admitting, 
because the influence of the arts proves that man's 
feelings always have admitted, and do stiU admit, 
this reality. 



122 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

"The Platonic philosophy of Vision is, that it is 
the view of objects really existing in interior Light, 
which assume form, not according to arbitrary laws, 
but according to the state of Mind. This interior 
light, if we understand Plato, unites with exterior 
light in the eye, and is thus drawn into a sensual or 
imaginative activity; but when the outward light 
is separated, it reposes in its own serene atmos- 
phere. It is, then, in this state of interior repose, 
that the usual class of religious, or what are called 
inspired, visions, occur. It is the same light of 
eternity so frequently alluded to in books that treat 
of mysterious subjects; the light revealed to Piman- 
der, Zoroaster, and all the sages of the East, as the 
emanation of the Spiritual Sun. Bohmen writes 
of it as his Divine Vision of Contemplation^ and Moli- 
nos in his Spiritual Guide, — whose work is the 
ground of Quietism: Quietism being the foundation 
of the religion of the people called Friends or Quakers^ 
as also of the other Mystic or meditative sects. We en- 
large from a very learned, candid, and instructive 
book upon the Occult Science. 
- ''Regard Fire, then, with other eyes than with 
those soul-less, incurious ones, with which thou hast 
looked upon it as the most ordinary thing. Thou 
hast forgotten what it is — or rather thou hast never 
known. Chemists are silent about it; or, may we 
not say that it is too loud for them? Thelrefore shall 
they speak fearfully of it in whispers. Philoso- 
phers talk of it as anatomists discourse of the con- 
tinents (or the parts) of the human body — as a piece 
of mechanism, wondrous though it be. Such the 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 123 

wheels of the clock, say they in their ingenious ex- 
pounding of the "whys" and the **wherefores" 
(and the mechanics and the mathematics) of this 
mysterious thing, with a supernatural soul in it, 
called world. Such is the chain, such are the bal- 
ances, such the larger and the smaller mechanical 
forces; such the "Time-blood," as it were, that is 
sent circulating through it; such is the striking, 

with an infinity of bells. It is made for man, this 
world, and it is greatly like him — that is, mean, they 

would add. 

"Note the goings of the Fire, as he creepeth, 
serpentineth, riseth, slinketh, broadeneth. Note 
him reddening, glowing, whitening. Tremble at 
his face, dilating; at the meaning that is growing 
into it, to you. See that spark from the black- 
smith's anvil! — struck, as an insect, out of a sky 
containing a whole cloud of such. Rare locusts, of 
which Pharaoh and the Cities of the Plain read of 
old the Secret! One, two, three sparks; — dozens 
come: — faster and faster the fiery squadrons fol- 
low, until, in a short while, a whole possible army 
of that hungry thing for battle, for food for it- 
Fire— glances up; but is soon warned in again!— 
lest acres should glow in the growing advance. 
Think that this thing is bound as in matter-chains. 
Think that He is outside of all things, and deep in 
the inside of all things ; and that thou and thy world 
are only the thing between: and that outside and in- 
side are both identical, couldst thou understand 
the supernatural truths! Reverence Fire (for its 
Meaning), and tremble at it; though in the Earth it 



124 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

be chained, and the foot of the Archangel Michael 
— like upon the Dragon— be upon it! Avert the 
face from it, as the Magi turned, dreading, and (as 
the symbol) before it bowed askance. So much for 
this G^rea)^ thing— Fire! 

'Observe the multiform shapes of fire; the flame- 
wreaths, the spires, the stars, the spots, the cas- 
cades, and the mighty falls of it; where the roar, 
when it grows high in Imperial masterdom, as that 
of Niagara. Think what it can do, what it is. 
Watch the trail of sparks, struck, as in that spout- 
ing arch, from the metal shoes of the trampling 
horse. It is a letter of the great alphabet. The 
famihar London streets, even, can give the 
Persian's God: though in thy pleasures, and in 
thy commerce-operations, thou so oft forgettest 
thine ovm, God. Whence liberated are those 
sparks?— as stars, afar off, of a whole sky 
of flame;— sparks, deep down in possibility, though 
close to us;— great in their meaning, though smaU 
in their show;— as distant single ships of whdle 
fiery fleets;— animate children ot, in thy human 
conception, a dreadful but, in reality, a great world, 
of which thou knowest nothing. They fall , f oodless, 
on the rejecting, barren, and (on the outside) the 
coldest stone. But in each stone, fence flinty and 
chilling as the outside is, is a heart of fire^ to strike 
at which is to bid gush forth the waters^ as it were, 
c^ every fire, like waters of the rock! Truly, out of 
sparks can be displayed a whole acreage of fire- 
works. Forests can be conceived of flame — palaces 
of the fire; Grandest things — Soul-things — last 
things — all things! 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 125 

'* Wonder no longer, then, if, rejected so long as 
an idolatry, the ancient Persians, and their Masters 
the Magi, — concluding that they saw *'AH" in 
this supernaturally magnificent element, — fell 
down and worshipped it; making of it the Visible 
representation of the very truest; but yet, in man's 
speculation, and in his philosophers, — nay, in his 
commonest reason, — impossible God: God being 
everywhere^ and in us, indeed, us, in the God-lighted 
man; and impossible to be contemplated or. known 
outside, — being All! 

^'Lights and flames, and the torches, as it were, of 
fire (all fire in this world, the last background on 
which all things are painted), may be considered as 
"lancets" of another world — the last world: circles ^ 
enclosed by the thick walls (which, however, by the 
Fire are kept from closing) of this world. As fire 
and brandishes, wilJ the walls of this world wave, 
and, as it were, undulate from about it. In smoke 
and disruption, or combustion of matter, we wit- 
ness a phenomenon of the burning as of the edges 
of the matter-rings of this world, in which world 
is fire, like a spot; that dense and hard thing, mat- 
ter, holding it in. Oxygen, which is the finest of 
air, and is the means of the quickest burning out, 
or the supernatural (in this world) exhilaration of 
animal life, or extenuation of the Solid; and, above 
all, the heightening of the capacity of the Human, 
as being the quintessence of matter: this oxygen 
is the thing which feeds fire the most overwhelm- 
ingly. Nor would the specks and spots and stars 
of fire stop in this dense world-medium, — in this 



126 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

tissue or sea of things, — could it farther and far- 
ther fasten upon and devour the sohds: eating, as it 
were, through them. But as this thick world is a 
thing the thickest, it presses out, thrusts, or gravi- 
tates upon, and stifles, in its too great weight; and 
conquers not only that livJiest, subtlest, thinnest 
element of the solids, the finest air, by whatever 
chemical name — Oxygen^ Awte, Azone, or what not — 
it may be called; which, in fact, is merely the nom- 
enclature of its composition, the naming of the in- 
gredients which make the thing (but not the thing). 
The denseness of the world not only conquers this, 
we repeat; but, so to figure it, matter stamps upon, 
effaces, and treads out fire: which, else, would burn 
on, back, as in the beginning of things, or into itself, 
— consuming, as in its great revenge of anything 
being created other than it, all the mighty worlds 
which, in Creation, were permitted out of it. This 
is the teaching of the ancient Fire-Philosophers 
reestablished and restored, to the days of compre- 
hension of them, in the conclusions of the Rosicru- 
cians of later times), who claimed to have discovered 
the Eternal Fire, or to have found out ''God" in the 
"Immortal Light."* 

"There are all grades or graduations of the den- 
sity of matter; but it all coheres by the one law of 
gravitation. Now, this gravitation is mistaken for 
a force of itself, when it is nothing but the sympathy, 
or the taking away of the supposed thing between two 
other things. It is sympathy (or appetite) seeking 

♦See "Divine Alchemy" for the mystery of Fire— Sex. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 127 

its food, or as the closing together of two things. 
It is not because one mass of matter is more pond- 
erable or attractive than another (out of our senses, 
and in reality), but that they are the same, with 
different amounts of affection, and that like seeks 
like, not recognizing or knowing that between. 
Now, this thing which is, as it were, slipped be- 
tween, and which we strike into show of itself, or 
into fire — surprised and driven out of its ambush--- 
is Fire. It is as the letter by which matter spells 
itself out— so to speak. Now, matter is only to be 
finally forced asunder by heat; flame being the 
bright, subtle something which comes last, and is 
the expansion, fruit, crown or glory of heat: it is 
the vivid and visible soul, essence, and spirit of heat 
—the last evolvement before rending, and before 
the forcible closing again of all the center-speeding 
weights, or desires, of matter. Flame is the ex- 
panding out (or even exploding) flower to this grow- 
ing thing, heat: it is at the bubble of it— the fruit 
(to which before we have likened it), or seed, in the 
outside Hand upon it. Given the super-natural 
Flora, heat is as the gorgeous plant, and flame the 
glorifying flower; and as growth is greater out of 
the greater matrix, or matter of growing, so the 
thicker the material of fire (as we may roughly fig- 
ure it, though we hope we shall be understood), so 
the stronger shall be the fire, and of necessity the 
fiercer will it be perceived to be— result being ac- 
cording to power. 

''Thus we get more of fire— that is, heat— out of 
the hard things: there being more of the thing Fire 
in them. 



128 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

*'But Fire disjoints, as it were, all the hinges of 
the house — laps out the coherence of it — sets ablaze 
the dense thing, matter — makes the dark metals 
run like waters of light — conjures the black devils 
out of the minerals, and, to our astonishment, 
shows them much libelled, blinding, angel- white! 
By Fire we can lay our hands upon the solids, Part 
them, powder them, melt them, fine them, drive 
them out to more and more delicate and impalpable 
texture — firing their invisible molecules, or impon- 
derables, into clouds, into mist, into gas: out of see- 
ing, into smelling; out of smelling into nothing — 
into real nothing— not even into the last blue sky. 
These are the potent operations of Fire— the cruci- 
ble into which we cast all the worlds, and find them, 
in their last evolution, not even smoke. These are 
physical and scientific facts which there can be no 
gainsaying—which were seen and found out long 
ago, ages ago, in the reveries first, and then in the 
practice, of the great Magnetists (Rosicrucians), 
and those who were called the Fire-Philosophers, 
of whom we have spoken before. 

"What is that mysterious and inscrutable opera- 
tion, the striking fire from flint? Familiar as it is, 
who remarks it? "Where, in that hardest, closest 
pressing together of matter— where the granula- 
tion compresses, shining even in its hardness, into 
the solidest Laminae of cold, darkest, blue, and 
streaky, core-like, agate-resembling white--lie the 
seeds of fire, spiritual flame-seeds to the so stony 
fruit? In what folds of the flint, in the block of it 
— in what invisible recess — speckled and spotted, in 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 129 

what tissue — crouch the fire-sparks? — to issue, in 
showers, on the stroke of iron — on the so sudden 
clattering (as of the crowbars of man) on its stony 
doors: Stone craving the thing Fire, unseen, as its 
sepulchre; Stroke warning the magical thing forth. 
Whence comes that trail of fire from the cold bosom 
of the hard, secret, unexploding flint? — Children as 
from what hard, rocky breast; yet hiding its so 
sacred, sudden fire-birth! Who — and what science- 
philosopher— can explain this wondrous darting 
forth of the hidden something, which he shall try 
in vain to arrest, but which, Uke a spirit, escapes 
him? If we ask what fire is, of the men of science, 
they are at fault. They will tell us that it is a phe- 
nomenon^ that their vocabularies can give no further 
account of it. They will explain to us that all can 
be said of it is, that it is a last affection of matter, 
to the results of what (in the world of man) they 
can only testify, but of whose coming and of whose 
going — of the place from which it comes, and the 
whereabouts of which it goeth— they are entirely 
ignorant,— and would give a world to know. 

'*The foregoing— however feebly expressed— are 
the views of the famous Rosicrucians* respecting 
the nature of this supposed familiar, but yet puz- 
zling, thing- Fire. We will proceed to some of their 
further Mystic reveries. 



* For the real Mystery of the Fire Philosophy of the true Rosicrucians, 
see '^Divine Alchemy." 

9 



180- THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

Ideas of the Rosicrudans as to the Character 

of Fire 

*' Spark surrenders out of the world, when it dis- 
appears to us, in the universal ocean of Invisible 
Fire. That is its disappearance. It quits us in 
the supposed light, but to it really darkness— as 
fire-born, the last level of all— to reappear in the 
true light, which is to us darkness. This is hard to 
understand. But, as the real is the direct contrary 
of the apparent, so that which shows as light to us 
is darkness in the supernatural; and that which is 
light to the supernatural is darkness to us: matter 
being darkness, and Soul light. For we know that 
light is material, and, being material, it must be 
dark. For the Spirit of God is not material, and 
therefore, not being material, it cannot be light to 
us, and therefore darkness to God. Just as (until 
discovered otherwise) the world it is that is at rest, 
and the sun and the heavenly bodies in daily motion 
—instead of the very reverse being the fact. This 
is the belief of the oldest Theosophists, the found- 
ers of magical knowledge in the East, and the dis- 
coverers of the Gods, also the doctrine of the fire- 
Philosophers, and of the Rosicrucians who taught 
that all knowable things (both of the Soul and of 
the body) were evolved out of Fire, and finally re- 
solvable into it; and that Fire was the last and only- 
to be-known God: as that all things were capable 
of being searched down into it, and all things were 
capable of being thought up to it. Fire, they found, 
when, as it were, they took this world, solid, to 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE '131 

pieces (and also, as metaphysicians, distributed and 
divided the mind of man, seeking for that invisible 
God-thing, coherence of ideas)- -fire, these thinkers 
found, in their supernatural light of mind, to be the 
latent, nameless matter started out of the tissues- - 
certainly out of the body, presumably out of the 
mind— with ^roan, disturbance, hard motion, and 
Jlash (when forced to sight of it), instantly disap- 
pearing, and relapsing, and hiding its Godhood in 
the closing- violently-again solid matter— as into the 
forcefully resuming mind. Matter, the agent 
whose remonstrance at disturbance out of its Rest 
was, in the winds, murmur, noise, cries, as it were^ 
of air; in the waters, rolling and roaring; in the 
piled floors of the sky, and their furniture, clouds, 
circumvolence, contest, and war, and thunders (de* 
fiant to nature, but groans to God), and intolerable 
lightning-rendings, matter tearing as a garment, 
to close supernaturally together again, as the Solid, 
fettered and chained— devil-bound- -in the Hand 
upon it, "To Be!" In this sense, all noise (as the 
rousing or conjuration of matter by the outside 
forces) is the agony of its penance. All motion is 
pain, all activity punishment; and Fire is the secret, 
lowest— that is, foundation-spread— thing, the ulti- 
mate of aU things, which is disclosed when the 
clouds of things roll, for an instant, off it,— as the 
blue sky shows, in its fragments, like turquoises, 
when the canopy of clouds is wind-torn, speck-like 
from off it. Fire is that floor over which the coats 
or layers, or the spun kingdoms of matter, or of 
the subsidences of the past periods of time (which 



132 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

is built up of objects), are laid; tissues woven over 
a gulf of it: in one of which last, We Are. To which 
Fire we only become sensible when we start it by 
blows or force, in the rending up of atoms, and in 
the blasting out of them that which holds them, 
which then, as Secret Spirit, springs compelled to 
sight, and as instantly flies, except to the immortal 
eyes, which receives it (in the supernatural) on the 
other side. 

'*The Fire-Philosophers maintained that we trans- 
cend everything into Fire, and that we lose it there 
in the flash, the escape of fire being as the door 
through which everything disappears to the other 
side. In their very peculiar speculations, and in 
this stupendous and supernatural view of the uni- 
Terse, where we think that fire is the exception, 
and is, as it were, spotted over the world (in reality, 
to go out when it goes out), they held that the direct 
contrary was the truth, and that we, and all things, 
were spotted upon fire; and that we conquer patches 
only of fire when we put it out, or win torches out 
of the great flame, when we enkindle fire, — which is 
our master in the truth, making itself, in our be- 
liefs (in our human needs), the slave. Thus fire, 
when it is put out, only goes into the underworld, 
and the matter-flags close over it like a grave-stone. 

"When we witness Fire, we are as if peering 
only through a door into another world. Into this, 
all the (consumed into microscopical smallness) 
things of this world, the compressed and concen- 
trate matter-heaps of defunct tides of Being and 
Time, are in combustion rushing: kingdoms of the 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 133 

floors of the things passed through — up to this 
moment held in suspense in the invisible inner 
worlds. All roars through the hollow. All this is 
mastered in the operations of this Fire, and that is 
rushing through the hollow made by it in the par- 
tition-world of the Knowable — across, and out on 
the other side, into the Unknowable — seeks, in the 
Fire, its last and most perfect evolution into absolute 
nothing^ — as a bound prisoner urges to his feet, in 
his chains, and shrieks for freedom when he is smit- 
ten. In Fire, we witness a grand phenomenon of 
the subsidiary (or further, and under, and inner, 
and multiplied) birth and death, and the supernat- 
ural transit of microscopic worlds, passing from 
the human sense-worlds to other levels and into 
newer fields. Then it is that the Last Spirit, of 
which they are composed, is playing before us; 
and playing, and playing, into last extinction, out 
of its rings of this-side matter: all which matter, 
in its various stages of thickening, is as the flux of 
the Supernatural Fire, or inside God. 

*'It will appear no wonder now, if the above ab- 
stractions be caught by the Thinker, how it was 
that the early people (and the founders of Fire-Wor- 
ship) considered that they saw God, standing face 
to face with Him — that is, with all that; in their in- 
nermost possibility of thought, they could find as 
God — in Fire. Which Fire is tiot our vulgar, gross 
fire; neither is it the purest material fire, which 
has something of the base, bright lights of the 
world still about it — brightest though they be in 
the matter which makes them the Lightest to the 



1|84 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

ipaterial sight; but it is an occult, mysterious, or 
inner — not even magnetic, but a supernatural — Fire: 
a real, sensible, and the only possible Mind, or God, 
as containing all things, and as the soul of all things; 
into whose inexpressible intense, and all-devouring 
and divine, though fiery, gulf, all the v^orlds in suc- 
cession, like ripe fruit to the ground, and all things, 
fall, — back into whose arms of Immortal light: on 
t^e other side, as again receiving them, all things, 
thrown off as the smoke off light, again fall! 

*'At the shortest, then, the theory of the Magi 
ipay be summed up thus. When, as we think, fire 
is spotted over all the world, as we have said, it is 
v^e who make the mistake, necessitated in our man's 
i^ature, and we are that which is spotted over it; — 
just as, while we think we move, we are moved; and 
we conclude the senses in us, while we are in the 
aenses: everything — out of the world— being the 
v.ery opposite of that which we take it. The views 
qf these mighty thinkers amounted to the suppres- 
sion of human reason, and the institution of Magic, 
qr God-head, as all. It will be seen at once that 
this knowledge was possible but for the very few. 
It is only fit for men when they seek to pass out of 
tjie world, and to approach— the nearest according 
to their natures— God. 

"The hollow world in which that essence of things, 
qalled Fire, plays, in its escape, in violent agitation 
--to us, combustion,— is deep down inside of us:* 
that is, deep-sunk inside of the time-stages of which 

*8ee "Divine Alchemy." 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 135 

rings of being (subsidences of spirit) we are, in the 
flesh,— that is, in the human show of things, --iA 
the outer. It is exceedingly difficult, through lan- 
guage, to make this idea intelligible; but it i^ the 
real Mystic dogma of the ancient Guebres, or the 
Fire-Believers, the successors of the Buddhists, or^ 
more properly, Bhuddists, 

"What is explosion? It is the lancing into the 
layers of worlds, whereinto we force, through turn- 
ing the edges out and driving through; in surprisai 
of the reluctant, lazy, and secret nature, exposing 
the hidden, magically microscopical stores of things; 
passing inwards out of the accumulated rings of 
worlds, out of the (within) supernaturally buried 
wealth, rolled in, of the past, in the procession of 
Being. What is smoke but the disrupted vapor^ 
world to the started soul-fire? The truth is, say 
the Fire-Philosophers, in the rousing of fire we 
suddenly come upon Nature, and start her violently 
out of her ambush of things, evoking her secret- 
est and immortal face to us. Therefore is this 
knowledge not to be known generally to man; and 
it is to be assumed at the safest in the disbelief 
of it: that disbelief being as the magic casket iii 
which it is locked. The keys are only for the Gods, 
-or for godlike Spirits. 

"We imagine that it will be said that it is impos- 
sible that any religionists could have seriously en- 
tertained such extraordinary doctrines; but, incred- 
ible as it may seem, — because it requires much 
preparation to understand tHem; — it is certainly true, 
that it is only in this manner the idfeas of the Di- 



136 THE PHILOSOPHY OFFIRE 

vinity of Fire, which we know once prevailed large- 
ly, can be made intelligible, — we mean to the phil- 
osopher, who knows how properly to value the an- 
cient Thinkers, who were as giants in the earth. 

"Obelisks, spires, minarets, tall towers, upright 
stones (Menhits), monumental crosses, and archi- 
tectural perpendiculars of every description, and, 
generally speaking, all erections conspicuous for 
height and slimness, were representatives of the 
sworded, or of the pyramidal Fire. They bespoke, 
wherever found, and in whatever age, the idea of 
the First Principle, or the male generation Emblem.'^ 

"Having given, as we hope, some new views of 
the doctrine of Universal Fire, and shown that 
there has been error in imagining that the Persians 
and the Ancient Fire- Worshippers were idolaters 
simply of fire, inasmuch as, in bowing down before 
it, they only regarded Fire as a Symbol, or Visible 
Sign, or thing placed as standing for the Deity, — 
having, in our preceding lines, disposed the mind 
of the reader to consider as a matter of solemnity, 
and of much greater general significance, this 
strange fact of Fire-Worship, and endeavored to 
show it as a portentous, first, all-embracing as all- 
genuine principle, — we will proceed to exemplify 
the wide-spread roots of the Fire-Faith. In fact, 
we seem to recognize it everywhere. 

"Instead of, in their superstition — making of fire 
their God, they obtained Him — that is, all that we 
can realize of Him; by which we mean, all that th^ 

*See both "Divine Alchemj," and "Ancient Mystic Oriental Maionry.'^ 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 137 

human reason can find of the Last Principle — out 
of it. Already in their thoughts, had the Magi ex* 
hausted all possible theologies; already had they, 
in their great wisdom, searched through physics — 
their power to this end being much greater than 
that of the modern faith-teachers and doctors; al- 
ready, in their reveries, in their observations (deep 
with their deep souls) upon the nature of them-^ 
selves, and of the microcosm of a world in which 
they found themselves, had the Magi transcended. 
They had arrived at a new world in their specula- 
tions and deductions upon facts, upon all the things 
behind which (to men) make these facts. Already^ 
in their determined climbing into the heights of 
jhought, and these Titans of mind achieved, past 
the cosmical, through the shadowy borders of Real 
and Unreal, into Magic. 

*'Passing through the mind- worlds, and coming 
out, as we may figure it, at the other side, penetrat- 
ing into the secrets of things, they evaporated all 
Powers, and resolved them finally into the Last 
Fire. Beyond this, they found nothing; as into 
this they resolved all things. And then, on the 
Throne of the Visible, they placed this — in the 
world Invisible — Fire: the sense- thing to be wor- 
shipped in the senses, as the last thing of them, and 
the king of them, — that is, that which we know as 
the phenomenon. Burning Fire,— ^the Spiritual Fire 
being inpalpable, as having the visible only for its 
shadow; the Ghostly Fire not being even to be 
thought upon; thought being its medium of appre- 
hension when itself had slipped; the waves of ap- 



138 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

prehension of it only flowing back when it — being 
intuition — had vanished. We only know that a 
thought is in us when the thought is off the object 
and in us: another thought being, at that simultan- 
eous instant, in the object, to be taken up by us 
only when the first has gone out of us, and so on; 
but not before to be taken up by us, — that thought 
being all of us, and a deceptive and unreal thing to 
pass at all to us through the reason, and there being 
no resemblance between it and its original; the true 
thing being "Inspiration," or "God in us," exclud- 
ing all matter or reason, which is only built up of 
matter. It is most difficult to frame language in 
regard to those things. Reason can only inmake 
God; He is only possible in His own development, 
or in His siezing of us, and "in possession. " Thus 
Paracelsus and his disciples declare the Human 
Reason become our master, that is, in its perfection, 
—but not use as our servant,— transforms, as it 
were into the Devil, and exercises his office in lead- 
ing us away from the throne of Spiritual Light- 
over, and, in the world, seeming better; in his false 
and deluding World-Light, or Matter-Light, really 
showing himself God. This view of the Human 
Reason, intellectually trusted, transforming into 
the Angel of Darkness, and effacing God out of the 
world, is borne out by a thousand Texts of Scripture. 
It is equally in the beliefs and in the traditions of 
all nations and of all times, as we shaU by and by 
show. Real Light is God's Shadow, or the soul of 
matter; the one is the very brighter, as the other is 
the very blacker. Thus, the worshippers of the Sun^ 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 139 

or Lights or Fire^ — otheriuise they loould have wor- 
shipped the Devil, he being all conceivable Light: but 
rather they adored the Unknown Great God, in the last 
image that was possible to man of anything — the Fire. 

And they chose that as His shadow, as the very- 
opposite of that which He really was: honouring the 
Master through His Servant; bowing before the 
manifestation, Eldest of Time, for the Timeless; 
paying homage to the spirit of the Devil- World, or 
rather to Beginning and End, on which was the 
foot of ALL, that the All, or the LAST, might be 
worshipped; propitiating the Evil Principle in its 
finite shows, because (as they that alone a world 
could be made, whose making is alone Comparison) 
it was permitted as a means of God, and therefore 
the operation of God Downwards, as part of Him, 
though Upwards dissipating as before Him, — be- 
fore HIM in whose presence Evil, or Comparison, 
or Difference, or Time, or Space, or anything, 
should be Impossible: real God being not to be 
thought upon. 

"But it was not only in the quickening Spirit of 
Divinity that these teachings could be seen. Other- 
wise than in faith, we can hope that they shall now 
— in our weak attempts to explain them — be gath- 
ered as not contradictory, and merely intellectual, 
and seen as vital and absolute. They need the ele- 
vation of the mind in the sense of "Inspiration," 
and not the quickening and sharpening of the Intel- 
lect, as seeking wings — devil-pinions — wherewith 
to sail into the region only of its own laws, where, 
of course, it will not find God. Then step in the 



140 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

mathematics, then the senses, then the reasons- 
then the very perfection of matter-work, or this 
world's work, sets in,— engines of which the Sa- 
tanic Powers shall realize the work. The evil Spir- 
it conjures, as even by holy command, the trans- 
lucent sky. The Archangelic, clear, child-like 
rendering-up in intuitive belief, — intense in its own 
sun, -is Faith. Lucifer fills the scope of belief with 
imitative, dazzling clouds, and built splendours. 
With these temptations it is sought to dissuade, 
sought to rival, sought to put out Saints' sight- 
sought even to surpass in seeming a farther and 
truer, because a more solid and a more sensible, 
glory. The apostate, real-born Lucifer, is so named 
as the intensest Spirit of Light, because he is of the 
things that perish, and of the things that to Mind— 
because they are all of Matter— have the most of 
glory! Thus is one of the names of the Devil, the 
very eldest-born and brightest Star of Light, that 
of the very morning and beginning of all things— 
the clearest, brightest, purest, as being soul-like, 
of Nature; but only of Nature. Real Law, or Na- 
ture, is the Devil; real Reason is the Devil. 

''Now we shall find, with a little patience, that 
this transcendental, beyond-limit-or-knowledge an- 
cient belief of the Fire-God is to belaid hand upon— 
as, in a manner, we shall say— in all the stories (and 
they, indeed, are all) where belief has grown,— yea, 
as a thing with the trees and plants, as out of the 
very ground,— in all the countries and continents— 
and in both worlds. And out of this great fact of 
its universal dissipation, as a matter of history the 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE l4l 

most innate and coexistent, shall we not assume 
this fire-doctrine as being of truth?--as a thing 
really, fundamentally, ancj vitally true? As in the 
East, so in the West; as in the old time, so in the 
new; as in the pre- Adamite and post-diluvian worlds^ 
so in the modern and latter-day world; surviving 
through the ages, buried in the foundations of em* 
pires, locked in the rocks, hoarded in legends^ 
maintained in monuments, preserved in beliefs, 
suggested in traditions, borne amidst the roads of 
the multitude in emblems, gathered up—as the re* 
curring, unremarked, supernaturally coruscant, 
and yet secret, evading, encrusted, and dishonored 
jewel— in rites, spoken (to those capable of the com- 
prehension) in the field of hieroglyphics, dimly 
glowing up to a fitful suspicion of it in the sacred 
rites of all peoples; figured forth in the religions, 
symbolized in a hundred ways: attested, prenoted, 
bodied forth in occult body, as far as body can;— 
in fine, in multitudinous fashions and forms forci- 
bly soliciting the sharpness of sight directed to its 
discovery, and spelt over a floor as underplacing all 
things, we recognize, we spy, we descry, and we 
may, lastly admit the mysterious sacredness of 
Fire. For why should we not admit it? 

Monuments Raised to Fire-Worship in all 

Countries 

''We think that we shall be able fully, in our suc- 
ceeding pages, to place beyond contradiction an 
extraordinary discovery. It is that the whole 



142 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

round of disputed emblems which so puzzle anti- 
quaries, and which are found in all countries, point 
to the belief in Fire as the First Principle. We 
seek to show that the Fire-Worship was the very 
earliest, from the immemorial times,— that it was 
the foundation religion,— that the attestation to it 
is preserved in monuments scattered all over the 
globe,— that the rites and usages of all creeds, down 
even to our own day, and in every-day use about us, 
bear reference to it,— that problems and puzzles in 
religion, which cannot be otherwise explained, 
stand clear and evident when regarded in this new 
light,— that in all the Christian varieties of belief— 
as truly as in Bhuddism, in Mohammedanism, in 
Heathenism of all kinds, whether eastern, or west- 
ern, or northern, or southern— this ''Mystery of 
Fire" stands ever general, recurring, and conspic- 
uous,— and that in being so, beyond all measure, 
old, and so, beyond all modern, or any idea of it, 
general,— as universal, in fact, as man himself, and 
the thoughts of man,— and as being that beyond 
which, in science and in natural philosophy, we can- 
not further go,— it must carry truth with it, how- 
ever difficult to comprehend, and however unsus- 
pected: that is; as really being the manifestation 
and Spirit of God, and — to the confounding and 
annihilation of Atheism — Revelation. 

"Affirmatively we shall now, therefore, offer to 
the attention of the reader the universal scattering 
of the Fire-Monuments, taking up at the outset 
certain positions about them. 
''Narrowly considered, it will be found that all re- 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 143 

ligions transcend up into this spiritual Fire-Floor, 
on which, to speak metaphysically, the phases of 
Time were laid. Material Fire, which is the bright- 
er as the matter which constitutes it is the blacker, 
is the shadow (so to express, or to speak, neces- 
sarily with "words," which have no meaning in the 
spirit) of the '* Spirit-Light," which invests itself 
in it as the mask in which alone it can be possible. 
Thus, material light being the very opposite of 
God, the Egyptians — who were undoubtedly ac- 
quainted with the Fire-Revelation — could not repre- 
sent God as light. They therefore expressed their 
Idea of Deity by Darkness. Their chief adoration 
was paid to darkness. They bodied the Eternal forth 
under Darkness. 

*' Stones were set up by the Patriarchs: the Bi- 
ble records them. In India, the first objects of 
worship were Monoliths. In the two peninsulas 
of India, in Ceylon, in Persia, in the Holy Land, in 
Phoenicia, in Saramathia, in Scythia, everywhere 
where worship was attempted (and in what place 
where man exists is it not?), everywhere where 
worship was practiced) and where, out of fear, did 
not, first, come the Gods, and then their propitia- 
tion?) — in all the countries, we repeat, as the earli- 
est of man's work, we recognize this sublime, mys- 
teriously speaking, ever-recurring monolith, mark- 
ing up the tradition of the supernaturally real, and 
only real, Fire-dogma. Buried so far down in time, 
the suspicion assents that there must somehow be 
truth in the foundation; not fanciful, legendary, 
philosophical creed-truth, unexplainable (and only 



144 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

to be admitted without question) truth: but truth, 
however mysterious and aweing, yet cogent, and not 
to be of philosophy (that is, illumination) denied. 

''The death and decent of Balder into the Hell of 
the Scandinavians may be supposed to be the pur- 
gatory of the Human Unit (or the God-illuminate), 
from the Light (through the God-dark phases of 
being), back into its native Light. Balder was the 
Scandinavian Sun-God, and the same as the Egyp- 
tian Osiris, the Greek Hercules, Bacchus, and Phoe- 
bus, or Apollo, the Indian Krishna, the Persian 
Mithras, the Aten of the Empires of Insular Asia; 
or, even of the Sidonians, the Athyr or Ashtaroth. 
The presence of all these divinities — indeed, of all 
Gods — were of the semblance of Fire; and we rec- 
ognize, as it were, the mark of the foot of them, or 
of the Impersonated Fire, in the countless uprights, 
left, as memorials, in the great ebb of the ages (as 
waves) to nations in the later divisions of that great 
roll of periods called Time: yet to totally unguess- 
ing of the preternatural mystery — seeming the key 
of all belief, and the reading of all wonders — which 
they speak. 

"It is to be noted that all the above religions — 
all the Creeds of Fire — were exceedingly similar in 
their nati:ire; that they all fortified by rites, and 
fenced around with ceremonies; and that, associat- 
ed as they were with mysteries and initiations, the 
disciple was led through the knowledge of them in 
stages, as his powers augmented and his eyes saw, 
until, towards the last grades (asif he himself grew 
capable and illuminate), the door was closed upon 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE MS 

all after-pressing and unrecognized inquirers, and 
the Admitted One was himself lost sight of. 

"There was a great wave to the westward €fPWt 
knowledge, all cultivation of the arts, all tradition, 
all intellect, all civilization, all religious belief. The 
world was peopled westward. There seems some 
secret, divine impress upon the world's destinies — 
and, indeed, ingrained in cosmical matter — in these 
matters. All faiths seem to have diverged out, the 
narrower or the wider, as rays from the great cen- 
tral Sun of this tradition of the Fire-Original. It 
would seem that Noah, who is suspected to be the 
Po, Poh, or Fohi, of the Chinese, carried it into the 
farthest Cathay of the middle ages. What is the 
Chinese Tien, or Earliest Fire? The pagodas of 
the Chinese (which name. Pagoda^ was borrowed 
from the Indian; from which country of India, in- 
deed, probably came into China its worship, and its 
Bhuddist doctrine of the exhaustion back into the 
divine light, or unparticled nothingness, of all the 
stages of being or of Evil), — the Chinese pagodas, 
we repeat, are nothing but innumerable gilt and 
belled fanciful repetitions of the primeval mono- 
lith. The fire, or light, is still worshipped in the 
Chinese temples ; it has not been perceived that, in 
the very form of the Chinese Pagodas, the funda- 
mental article of the Chinese religion — transmigra- 
tion, through stages of being, out into nothingness 
of this world — has been architecturally emblemed 
in the diminishing stories, carried upwards, and 
fining away into the series of unaccountable discs 
struck through a vertical rod, until all culminates? 

10 



146 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

and — as it were, to speak heraldically of it — the 
last achievement is blazoned in the gilded ball, which 
means the final, or Bhuddist, glorifying absorption. 
Buildings have always telegraphed the Insignia of 
the mythologies; and, in China, the fantastic speaks 
the sublime. We recognize the same embodied 
MytJiosiYi dl\ architectural spiring or artistic dim- 
inution, whether tapering to the globe or exaltation 
of the Egyptian Uraeus, or the disc, or the Sidonian 
crescent, or the lunar horns, or the Acroterium of 
the Greek temple, or the pediment of the classic 
Pronaos itself (crowning, how grandly and suggest- 
ively, at solemn dawn, or in the ^'spirit4usyres" 
of the dimming and still more than dawn, solemn 
twilight, the top of some mountain, an ancient of 
the days). Here, besetting us at every turn, meet 
we the same mystic emblem; again, in the crescent 
of the Mohammedan fanes, surmounting even the 
Latin, and therefore the once Christian St. Sophia. 
Last, and not least, the countless ''churches" rise, 
in the Latter-Day Dispensation, sublimely to the 
universal signal, in the glorifying, or top, or crown- 
ing Cross: last of the Revelation! 

''In the fire-towers of the Sikls, in the dome- 
covered and many-storied spires of the Hindoos, in 
the vertically turreted and longitudinally massed 
temples of the Bhudds, of all the classes and of all 
the sects, in the religious building of the Cingalese, 
in the upright flame-fanes of the Parsees, in the 
original of the Campaniles of the Italians, in the 
tower of St. Mark at venice, in the flame- shaped or 
pyramidal {Pyr is the Greek for Fire) architecture 



tHE PHILOSOPHY OB^ flRE 14? 

of the Egyptians (which is the parent of all that is 
called architecture), we see the recurring symboL 
All the minarets that, in the eastern sunshine^ 
glisten through the Land of the Moslem; indeed* 
his two-horned crescent, equally with the moon, 
or disc, or twO'^pointed globe of the Sidonian Ash^ 
taroth (after whose forbidden worship Solomon, 
the wisest of mankind, in his defection from the God 
of his fathers, evilly thirsted); also, the mystic dis- 
cus, or ''round," of the Egyptians, so continually 
repeated, and set, as it were, as the forehead-mark 
upon all the temples of the land of soothsayers and 
sorcerers, — this Egypt so profound in its philoso- 
phies, in its wisdom, in its magic-seeing, and in its 
religion, raising out of the black Abyss a God to 
shadow it, all the minarets of the Mohammedan^ 
we say, together with all the other symbols of moon 
or disc, or wings, or of horns (equally with the 
shadowy and preternatural beings in all mytholo- 
gies and in all theologies, to which these adjuncts 
or Insignia are referred, and which are symbolized 
by them), — all these monuments, or bodied mean^ 
ings, testify to the Deification of Fire. 

''What may mean that "Tower of Babel" and its 
impious raising, when it sought, even past and ovei* 
the clouds, to imply a daring sign? What portent 
was that betrayal of a knowledge not for man,— ^ 
that surmise forbidden save in infinite humility, 
and in the whispered impartment of the further 
and seemingly more impossible, and still more 
greatly mystical, meanings? In utter abnegation 
of self alone shall the mystery of fire be conceived. 



148 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

Of what was this Tower Belns, or the Fire, to he 
the moniiment? When it soared, as a Pharos, on 
the rock of the traditionary ages, to defy time in its 
commitment, to ''form'^ of the tinpronounceable 
secret,— stage on stage and ^tory on story, though 
it chffibed the clouds, and on its top should shine 
the ever-burning Fire,— first idol in the worlds 
"dark save with neglected stars, "—what was the 
Tower of Babel but a gigantic monolith? Perhaps 
to record and to perpetuate this ground-fire of all; 
to be worshiyjped, in idol, in. its visible form, when 
it should be alone taken as the invisible thought: fire 
to be waited for (spirit possession), not waited on 
(idolatry.) Therefore was the speech confounded^ 
that the thing should not be; therefore, under the 
myth of climbing into heaven by the means of it, 
was the first colossal monolithic temple (in which 
the early dwellers upon the earth sought to enshrine 
the Fire) laid prostrate in the thunder of the Great 
God. And the languages were confounded from 
that day, — speech was made babble — thence its 
name,~that the secret should remain a secret. It 
was to be only darkly hinted, and to be fitfully dis- 
closed, like a false-showing light, in the theosophic 
glimmer, amidst the world's knowledge-lights. It 
was to reappear, like a spirit, to the ''initiate," in 
the glimpse of reverie, in the snatches of sight, in 
the profoundest wisdom, through the studies of all 
ages. 

*'Wefind, in the religious administration of the 
ancient world, the most abundant proofs of the 
secret fire-tradition. Sehweigger shows, in his 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 149 

^^Introduction into Mythology^ ^ (pp. 132, 228), that the 
Phoenician Cabiri and the Greek Dioscuir, the 
Curetes, Corybantes, Telchini, were originally of 
the same nature, and are only different in trifling 
particulars. All these symbols represent electric 
and magnetic phenomena, and that under the an- 
cient name of twin-fires, hern;iaphrodite fire. The 
Diescuri is a phrase equivalent to the Sons of Heav- 
en: if, as Herodotus asserts, "Zeus originally rep- 
resented the whole circle of Heaven." 

'*From India into Egypt was imported this Spir- 
itual Fire-Belief. We recognize, again, its never- 
failing structure-signal. Rightly regarded the 
great Pyramids are nothing but the world-enduring 
architectural attestation, following (in the pyramid- 
al) the well-known leading law of Egypt's templar 
piling mound-like, spiry — of the Universal Flame- 
Faith. Place a light upon the summit, star-like 
upon the sky, and a prodigious altar the mighty 
Pyramid then becomes. In this tribute to the 
world-filling faith, burneth expressed devotion to 
(radiateth acknowledgement of) the immortal magic 
religion. There is little doubt that as token and 
emblem of Fire-worship, as indicative of the adora- 
tion of the real, accepted Deity, these Pyramids 
were raised.* The idea that they were burial places 
of the Egyptian monarchs is untenable when sub- 
mitted to the weighing of meanings, and when it 
comes side by side with this better fire-explanation. 



*See *'Ancient Mystic Oriental Masonry" regarding the use the Fire 
Monuments were put to. 

10 I 



150 THE PHILOSOPHY Ol^ PIBJB 

Cannot we accept these Pyramids as the vast altars 
on whose top should burn the^ame^ — flame commem- 
orative, as it were, to all the v^prld, Cannot we see 
in these pilps, liter aUy-, and really. Transcendental 
in origin, the Egyptian reproduction, and; .a . hiero- 
glyphical signalling on, pf> special truth, eldest of 
time? Do we not recogni^^ . in the .Pyr^niid:,) the. 
repetition of the first monolith?— rail :th€5: uprights 
constituting the grand attesting pillar to the super- 
natural traditions to a Pire-Forn, World? 

The ever-recurring Globe with Wing$, so fre- 
quent in the sculptures of the Egyptians, witness 
to the Electric Principle. It embodies the trans- 
jnigration of the Indians, reproduced by Pythago* 
ras. Pythagoras resided for a long period in 
Egypt, and acquired from the priests the philo- 
sophic "transition" — knowledge, which was after- 
wards doctrine. The globe, disc, or circle of the 
Phoenician Astarte, the crescent of Minerva, the 
horns of the Egyptian Ammon, the deifying of the 
ox, — all have the same meaning. We trace, among 
the Hebrews, the token of the identical mystery in 
the horns of Moses, distinct in the sublime statue 
by Michael Angelo in the Vatican; as also in the 
horns of the Levitical altar: indeed, the use of the 
*' double Hieroglyph" in continental ways. The 
volutes of the Ionic column, the twin stars of Castor 
and Pollux, nay, generally, the employment of the 
double emblem all the world over, in ancient or in 
modern times, whether displayed as points, or radii^ 
or wings on the helmets of those barbarian chiefs 
who made war upon Rome, Attila or Genseric, or 



THE PffILO§OPa¥ tyf^ FIRE loi 

broadly sliown upontlie liead-piece of tlieFrankisb 
Glovis; whether emblemed In the rude and, as it 
were, savagely, mystic horns of the Asiatic Idols, 
or reproduced in the horns of th6 Runic Hammerer 
(or Destroyer), or those of the' Gothic Mars, or of 
the modern Devil— All this d6uble-spreading from 
a common point (or this figure of ITOi^iVSO speaks 
the same story. 

"TheGolossus of Rhodes W8LS a monolith, in the 
human form, dedicated to the Sun, or the Fire^ 
The Pharos of Alexandria was a fire-monuments 
Heliopolis, or the City of the Sun, in Lower Egypt 
(as the name signifies), contained a temple, wherein^ 
combined with all the dark superstitions of the 
Egyptians, the flame-secret was preserved. In 
most jealous secrecy was the tradition guarded ^ 
and the symbol alon^ was presented to the worlds 
Of the Pyramids^'^s prodigious- Pire-MonumentSj 
we have before spokeft.^^ Magnfficent as the princi- 
pal Pyramid still is^' it- TsstatM by an ancient his- 
torian that it originffly ''formed, at the base, ''a 
square^'eight hundred^eet^'&d that it was eight 
hundred' feet high' ;" Ano^h^f liiforms that * 'three 
hundred:and'stx%-six'thous&]tid m 
twen;ty.years is lt:!i'%i^eet3on.'' Its' hdght is now 
s^ipposed to'bBi'siixdkiundred feet. Have historians 
r^^^&^^niiq'uslvies^^i^^ th'e' fact (even in 

th^'nam.eoi.t^&^M^WMMs^ Pur\ in the 

..Greek, ''m:@ari^r:Mr^-/'!^^ We would argiie that that 
0boect,in.>tihfcfirreat Pyramid,' whic^ bfeen mis- 
taken; for- a r:tcTO:te(and which- iS,'mbr6bver, rather 
fasbipneft Hke^sfejMtai^^^moetb'^^ ^laM, t^thout 



152 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FlR^ 

aiiy earned work), is, in reality, the va^e, urn, ot 
depository, of the sacred, ever-btirningi^/i?j5: of the 
existence which everJi^ing, inextinguishable fire^ 
to be fonnd at some period of the World's history, 
there is abundant tradition. This view is fortified 
by the statements of Diodorns, who writes that 
"Cheops, or Chemis, who founded the principal 
Pyramid, and Ohephren, or Oepherenus, who built 
the next to it, were neither buried here, but that 
they were deposited elsewhere. 

"It is evident from their hieroglyphics that the 
Egyptians were acquainted with the wonders of 
magnetism. By means of it (and by the secret 
power which lie in the hyper-sensual^ "heaped floors* 
of it), out of the every-day senses, the Egyptians 
struck together, as it were, a bridge, across which 
they paraded into the supernatural:, the Magic por- 
tals receiving them as on the other and armed side 
of a drawbridge, shaking in its thunders in its rais- 
ing (or in its lowering), as out of flesh. Athwart 
this, in TRANCES, swept the Adepts, leaving their 
mortality behind them. All^ and their earth-sur- 
roundings, to be resumed at their reissue upon the 
plains of life, when down in their humanity again. 

"In the cities of the ancient world, the Palladium, 
or Protesting Talisman (invariably set up in the 
chief sqvare of place), was — there is but little doubt 
— the reiteration of the very earliest monolith. All 
the obelisks, — each often a single stone, of prodi- 
gious weight, — all the singular, solitary, wonderful 
pillars and monuments of Egypt, as of other lands, 
are, m it were, oaly tombstpx^es of the F^re! AU 



THE I^fllLO&OPHV 0^ 5^!RE 159 

testify to the great, so darkly hinted secret. In 
Troy was the image of Pallas, the myth of knowl- 
edge, of the world, of manifestation, of the Fire. 
SonL In Athens was Pallas^Athene, or Min. 
erva. In the Greek cities, the form of the deity 
changed variously to Bacchus, to Hercules, to Phoe- 
bus-Apollo; to the tri-formed Minerva, Dian, and 
Hecate; to the dusky Ceres, or the darker Cybele. 
In the wilds of Sarmathia, in the wastes of North^^ 
ern Asia, the luminous rays descended from heaven, 
and, animating the Lama, or "Light-Born," spoke 
the same story. The flames of the Greeks, the 
towers of the Phoenicians, the emblems of the Pe-^ 
lasgi; the story of Prometheus, and the myth of his 
stealing the fire from Heaven, wherewith to ani-^ 
mate the man (or enSoul the visible world); th^ 
forges of the Cyclops, and the monuments of Sicily} 
the mysteries of the Etrurians; the rites of the 
Carthaginians; the torches borne, in all priestly 
demonstrative 'pi'ocessions, at all times, in aU coun^ 
tries; the Vestal Fires of the Romans, the very 
word Flamen^ as indicative of the office of the o^ 
ficiating sacerdote; the hidden fires of the ancieni 
Persians, and the grimmer (at least in name)Gueb^ 
res; the whole Mystic meaning of flames on altars^ 
of the ever-burning tomb4ights of the eairllex^ peo- 
ples, whether in the classic or in the bat*batian 
lands, — everything of this kind was intended to slg** 
nify the deified Fire. Fires are lighted in the tMh^ 
0ral ceremonies of the Hindoos and of the Moham^^ 
medans, even to this day, though the body be com'- 
mited whole to earth. Wherefore fire, then? Cre» 



154 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

mation and urn-burial, or the burning of the dead 
— practiced in all ages — imply a profounder mean-^ 
ing than is generally supposed. They point to the 
transmigration of Pythagoras, or to the purgatorial 
reproductions of the Indians j among whom we the 
earliest find the dogma. The real signification of 
fire-burial is the commitment of human mortality 
into the iast-of -all matter, overleaping the inter- 
mediate state; or the delivering over of the man-* 
unit into the Flame- Soul, past all intervening 
spheres or stages of the purgatorial: the absolute 
doctrine of the Bhudds, taught, even at this day, 
among the Initiates 3li over the East. Thus we see 
how classic practice and heathen teaching may be 
made to reconcile,-^how even the Gentile and He- 
brew, the mythological and the (so-called) Christian, 
(doctrine harmonize in the general faith-^founded 
in Magic. That Magic is indeed possible is the 
moral of our work. 

- "We find, therefore, in the earliest ages, an 
AEth'er (spiritual fire) theory, by which many mod- 
ern theorislJs endeavor to explain the phenomena 
6f rQagnStiBm% This is the "'AEthemem'' of , Robert 
Fludd^ tberSo^icrucian. - , 

, ^'Pire,iiiid^edv would appear to "have been the 
chosen eteii&t' of God' ^ In the ^f ot of a flaming 
^'bush^'- Be5:mpfpeal^ed t^y- MoseS bri M Sinai. 

His pi^eitode :^Wa^^'- denbtM-^ H^ torrents • of flame, 
and- in the?. form of fire He^ preceded the band of 
Israelites^6y' naght' thrbugB^%lie<&eary wilderness; 
which is '^eiJhiapstheorigiri of the present custom 
oi:i]ie Atd^^'dit^^ carry fire iii front of 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 155 

their caravans, " — (Reade's Veiloflsis), All the early 
fathers held God the Creator to consist of a **subtle 
fire." When the Holy Spirit descended upon the 
Apostles on the Day of Pentecost, it was in the 
form of a tongue of fire, accompanied by a rushing 

wind. ,.-■..:. ,^ : ,_ - -^ .':- '■.: 

*'The personality of Jehovah is, inScripture, rep- 
resented by the Material Trinity of Nature:, which 
also, like the Divine antitype, is of one substance. 
The primal, scriptural type of the Father is Fire; 
of the Word, Light: and of the Holy Ghost, Spirit, 
or Air in motion.* This Material Trinity , as a type, 
is similiar to the material trinity of Plato; as a type, 
it is used to conceal the "Secret Trinity." Holy 
fires, which were never suffered to die, were main- 
tained in all the temples: of these were the fires in 
the Temple of the Gaditanean Hercules at Tyre, in 
the Temple of Vesta at Rome, among the Brah- 
mans of India, Among the Jews, and principally 
among the Persians. 

'*As soon as Jesus was born, according to the 
Gnostic speculative view of Christianity, Christos, 
uniting himself with Sophia (Holy Wisdom); des- 
cended through the seven planetary regions, as- 
suming in each an analogous form to the region, 
and concealing his true nature from its genii 
whilst he attracted into himself the sparks of Di- 
vine Light they severally retained in their angelic 
essence. Thus Christos, having passed through 
the seven Angelic Regions before the ''THRONE," 

*See "Divine Alchemy." 



156 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

entered into the man Jesus, at the moment of his 
baptism in the Jordan. From that time forth, be- 
ing supernaturally gifted, Jesus began to work 
miracles. Before that, he had been completely 
ignorant of his mission. When on the cross, Chris- 
tos and Sophia left his body, and returned to their 
own sphere. Upon his death, the two took the man 
**Jesus," and abandoned his material body to the 
earth; for the Gnostics held that the true Jesus 
did not (and could not) physically suffer on the cross 
and die, but that Simon of Gyrene, who bore his 
cross, did in reality suffer in his room: "And they 
compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, com- 
ing out of the country, the father of Alexandria 
and Rufus, to bear his cross" (St. Mark xv. 21.) 

The Gnostics contended that a portion of the real 
history of the Crucifixion was never written. 

Asserting that a miraculous substitution of per- 
sons took place in the great final act of the "Cruci- 
fixion," the Gnostics maintained that the "Son of 
God" could not suffer physically upon the cross, 
the apparent sufferer being human only. 

"At the point of the miraculous transference of 
persons, Christos and Sophia (the Divine) left his 
body, and returned to their own heaven. Upon 
his death on earth, the two withdrew the "Being" 
Jesus (spiritually), and gave him another body, 
made up of ether (Rosicrucian AEtheraeum), Thence 
forward he consisted of the two Rosicrucian prin- 
ciples only, soil and spirit; which was the cause that 
the disciples did not recognize him after the resur- 
rection. During his sojourn upon earth eighteen 



f&fe PHILOSOIF^HV OF FIRE iBf 

months after he had risen, he received from Sophia 
{Soph^ Suph,) or Holy Wisdom, that perfect knowl- 
edge or illumination, that true '^Gnosis," which he 
communicated to the small number of the Apos^ 
ties who were capable of receiving the same. 

''As the Son of God remained unknown to the 
World, so must the disciple of Basilides also remain 
unknown to the rest of mankind. As they knoW 
all this, and yet must live amongst strangers, there- 
fore must they conduct themselves towards the 
rest of the world as invisible and unknown. Hence 
our motto, "Learn to know all, but keep thyself un-- 
known. ' ' {Irenaeus.) 

''Though fire is an element in which eveything 
inheres, and of which it is the life, still, according 
to the Rosicrucian idea, it is itself another element, 
in a second non-terrestrial element, or inner, non= 
physical, ethereal fire, in which the first coarse fire, 
so to speak, flickers, waves, brandishes, and spreads 
floating — like a liquid — now here, now there. The 
first is the natural, materialj gross fire^ with which 
we are familiar, contained in a celestial^ unparticledi 
and surrounding medium (or celestial fire), which 
is its MATRIX, and of which, in this human body, 
we can know nothing.* 

"Ptha is the emblem of the Eternal Spirit from 
which everything is created. The Egyptians rep- 
resented it as a pure ethereal fire which burns for^ 
ever, whose radiance is raised far above the plan^ 
ets and stars. In early ages, the Egyptians wor- 

♦See "Divine Alchemy." 



158 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

shipped this highest being under the name of Athor, 
He was the Lord of the Universe. The Greeks 
transformed Athor into Venus, who was looked 
upon by them in the same hght as Athor. "Ac- 
cording to the Egyptians," says Jablonski, "Mat- 
ter has alway® been connected with the mind. The 
Egyptian priests also maintained that the gods ap- 
peared to man, and that spirits communicated with 
the human race. " The Souls of men are, accord- 
ing to the oldest Egyptian doctrine, formed of 
Ether, and at death return again to it," 

"The saffron robe of Hymen is of the color of the 
Flame of Fire. The Bride, in ancient days, was 
covered with a veil called the ^' Flammeun;^^ unless 
made under this, no vow was considered sacred. 
The ancient swore, not by the altar, but by the 
flame of fire which tvas upon the altar. Yellow, or 
Flame-colored, was the color of the Ghebers, or 
Guebres, or Fire-Worshippers. The Persian lilies 
are yellowy and here will be remarked a connection 
between this fact of the yellow of the Persian lilies 
and the Mystic symbols in various parts. Mystic 
rites, and the symbolical lights which mean the 
Divinity of Fire, abound at Oandlemasday, (Feb- 
ruary 2nd), or the Feast of Purification; in the tor- 
ches borne at weddings, and in the typical flame- 
brandishing at marriage over almost all the world; 
in the illumination at feasts; in the lights on, and 
set about the Christian altar; at the festival of the 
Holy Nativity; in the ceremonies at preliminary 
espousals; in the Bale, or Baal, fires on the sum- 
mits of the mountains; in the watch-lights, or votive 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 159 

sanctuary-lights, in the hermitage in the lowest 
valley; in the Ghapelle Ardente^ in the Romish funer- 
al observances, with its abundance of silent, touch- 
ing lights around the splendid Catafalque, or twink- 
ling, pale and ineffectual, singly at the side of the 
death-bed in the cottage of the peasant. Starry 
lights and innumerable torchesat the stately funeral, 

-or at any pompous celebration, mean the same. In 
short, light all over the world, when applied to re- 

'ligious rites, and to ceremonial, whether in the an- 
cient or in the modern times, bespeaks the same 
origin, and struggles to express the same meaning, 
which is Parseeism, perseism, or the w;orship of 
the Deified fire, disguised in many theological or 
theosophic forms. It will, we trust, never be sup- 
posed that we mean, in this, real fire, but only the 
inexpressible something of which real fire, or rath- 

ver its flower or glory (bright Light), is the farthest 
off— because, in being visible at all, it is the gross- 

,est and most inadequate image. 

*'The Rosicrucians held that, all things visible 

' and invisible having been produced by the conten- 
tion of light with darkness, the earth has dense- 

- ness in its innumerable heavy concomitants down- 
wards, and they contain less and less of the origin- 
al Divine Dight as they thicken and solidify the 
grosser and heavier in matter. They taught never- 
theless, that every object, however stifled or de- 
layed in its operation, and darkened and thickened 
in the solid blackness at the base, yet contains a 
certain possible deposit, or jewel, of light, — which 
light, although by natural process it may take ages 



160 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

to evolve, as light will tend at last by its ow^n native, 
irresistible force upward (when it has opportunity), 
can be liberated; that dead matter will yield this 
spirit in a space more or less expeditious by the 
art of the Alchemist. These are worlds within 
worlds, — we, human organisms, only living in a de- 
ceiving, or Bhuddistic, **dream-like phase" of the 
grand panorama. Unseen and unsuspected (be- 
cause in it lies magic), there is an inner magnetism, 
or divine aura^ or ethereal spirit, or possible eager 
fire, shut and confined, as in a prison, in the body, 
or in all sensible solid objects, which have more or 
less of spiritually sensitive life as they can more 
successfully free themselves from this ponderable, 
material obstruction. Thus all minerals, in this 
spark of light, have the rudimentary possibility of 
plants and growing organisms; thus all plants have 
rudimentary sensitives, which might (in the ages) 
enable them to perfect and transmute into locomo- 
tive new creatures, lesser or higher in their grade, 
no nobler or meaner in their functions; thus all 
plants and vegetables might pass off (by side-roads) 
into more distinguished highways, is it were, of 
independent, completer advance, allowing their 
original spark of light to expand and thrill with 
higher and more vivid force, and to urge forward 
with more abounding, informed purpose — all 
wrought by planetary influence, directed by the 
unseen spirits (or workers) of the Great Original 
Architect, building His microcosmos of a world from 
the plans and power evoked in the macrocosm, or 
heaven of first forms, which in their multitude and 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 161 

magnificence, are as changeable shadows cast off 
from the Central Immortal First Light, whose rays 
dart from the centre to the extremest point of the 
universal circumference. It is with terrestrial fire 
that the alchemist breaks or sunders the material 
darkness or atomic thickness, all visible nature 
yielding to His furnaces, whose scattering heat 
(without its sparks) breaks all doors of this world's 
kind. 

*'It is with immaterial fire (or ghostly fire) that 
the Rosicrucian loosens contradiction and error, 
and conquers the false knowledge and the deceiving 
senses which bind the human soul as in its prison. 
On this side of his powers, on this dark side (to the 
world) of his character, the alchemist (rather now 
become the Rosicrucian) works in visible light, and 
is a Magician. He lays the bridge (as the Pontif ex, 
or Bridge-Maker) between the world possible and 
the world impossible; and across this bridge he 
leads the votary out of his dream of life into his 
dream of temporary death, or into extinction of the 
senses and of the powers of the senses; which 
world's blindness is the only true and veritable 
life, the envelope of flesh falling metaphorically off 
the now liberated glorious entity — taken up, in 
charms, by the invisible fire into rhapsody, which 
is at the gate of Heaven. 

''Now a few words as to the theory of Alchemy. 
The alchemists boasted of the powers, after their 
elimination and dispersion of the ultimate elements 
of bodies by fire (represented by the absent differ- 
ence of their weights before and after their disso- 

11 



162 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

lution), to recover them back out of that exterior, 
unknown world surrounding this world: which 
world men reason against as if it had no existencej 
when it has real existence. It is this other world 
(just off this real world) into which the Rosicru- 
cians say they can enter, and bring back, as proofs 
that they ha^e been there, the old things (thought 
escaped), metamorphosed into new things. This 
act is traasmutation. This product is Magic gold, 
or "fairy gold," condensed as real gold. This 
growing gold, or self -generating and multiplying 
gold, is obtained by invisible transmutation (and in 
other light) in another world out of this world; im- 
material to us creatures of limited faculties, but 
material enough, farther on, on the heavenly side, 
or on the side opposite to our human side. In other 
words, the Rosicru cians claimed not to be bound 
by the limits of the present world, but to be able 
to pass into this next world (inaccessible only in 
appearance), and to be able to work in it, and to 
come back safe out of it, bringing their trophies 
with them, which were gold, obtained out of this 
master-circle, or outside elementary circle, differ- 
ent from ordinary life, though enclosing it; and the 
elixir vitae, or the means of the renewal or the per- 
petuation of human life through this universal, im- 
mortal medicine, or Magisterium, which being a por- 
tion of the light outside, or Magic, or Breath of the 
Spirits,* fleeing from man, and only to be won in 
the audacity of alchemical exploration, was inde- 
pendent of those mastered natural elements, or 
nutritions, necessary to common life. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 163 

*'The Vedas describe the Persian religion (Fire- 
worship) as having come from Upper Egypt. "The 
mysteries celebrated within the recesses of the 
"hypogea" (caverns or labyrinths) "were precisely 
of that character which is called Fremasonic* or 
Cabiric. The signification of this latter epithet is, 
as to written letters, a desideratum. Selden has 
missed it; so have Origen and Sophocles. Strabo, 
to, and Montfaucon, have been equally astray. 
Hyde was the only one who had any idea of its com- 
position when he declared that "It was a Persian 
word^ somewhat altered from Gdbri, or Guebri, sig- 
nifying FIRE- WORSHIPPERS. " Pococke, in his 
'''India in Greece^^^ is very sagacious and true in his 
arguments; but he tells only half the story of the 
myths in his supposed successful divestment of 
them of aU unexplainable character, and of exterior 
supernatural origin. He supposes that all the 
mystery must necessarily disappear when he has 
traced and carefully pointed out, the identity and 
transference of these myths from India into Egypt 
and into Greece, and their gradual spread west- 
ward. But he is whoUy mistaken; and most other 
modern explainers are equally mistaken. 

"This is not an attempt to restore to Superstition 
its dispossessed pedestal, but to replace the Super- 
natural upon its abdicated throne. Also to discover 
what the nature of this Fire should be, which seems 
to have, been the thing earliest worshipped in the* 
world, and continued traces of which worship sur- 
vive not only over all Europe, but in all other coun- 
tries. Fire Philosophy is the foundation of all relig- 
ions, it is the very philosophy of the Soul, of Love 
and of God. Without Fire there could be no exist* 
ence. God, Love and the Soul are all the one and 
same thing — the Living Fire. 



Atlantis 



Its Beauty, Its Fall, 



N that portion of the maps of the earth's sur- 
face named the Western Hemisphere can be 
found an immense island-studded sea, and an almost 
land-locked gulf. Into this gulf stretches a nearly 
perfect parallelogram, the peninsula of Yucatan. 

*'Solong ago that history fades into the hoary 
mists of tradition, the gulf was an inland lake. 
Where the islands now show themselves amid the 
blue waters, a continent sunned itself in the light 
of blazing days. 

''This continent was peopled by the Aryan race. 
Its latitude teemed with all needed conditions to 
make exoticlife most desirable, whether suchlife was 
on the animal or vegetable plane. The population in- 
creased and multiplied until the whole broad land 
became one vast city. Temples and palaces, works 
of skill and art, abounded everywhere. These did 
not there represent the slow toil of human sweat 
and agony, of brute force tyrannized into sulky 
compliance. Brilliant in design and bold in execu- 
cution, they were the manifestation of soul-power 
over Elemental force. The worship of the one God 
was taught. To those who desired, training for 
the acquisition of the most Occult and Mystical 
knowledge ever known to men was possible. 



166 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

"They who had charge of these departments as 
Keepers of the Keys and treasuries of knowledge 
were neither unaware or regardless of the fact of 
other planes of existence upon the earth. For 
thousands of years they strove earnestly to better 
all states of their fellowmen by imparting a knowl- 
edge of the truth. 

"By the silent thought the whole people were lifted 
grade by grade as rapidly as they could assimilate 
the instructions which are of so much influence and 
assistance in the duties and pleasures of life. Just 
as fast as they could be educated to perceive these 
facts, they were advanced in the scale of existence. 

"It is true of all peoples, nations, kindreds and 
tongues, that in proportion as the lower classes rise 
from a given starting point towards the Light, the 
force generated (vibrations set in motion) by their 
action will lift those who are sensitive and fit still 
farther above them. It is better to be the wise 
men of a nation of Philosophers than the learned of 
a race of cringing slaves. 

"It is not strange, therefore, that these of whom 
I speak should have held the mightiest secrets of 
the universe in their keeping. It was not strange 
that the trackless waste of water in unknown seas 
became to them familiar paths, nor that the mys- 
teries of the earth, of the air and of all Nature were 
at their command. The archives of all ancient na- 
tions, carved in their books of stone, speak clearly 
and truly of them. In Egypt, in Assyria, in India, 
are found the same inscriptions, conveying the 
same knowledge, that is to-day locked up in the 



THE PHILOSOPHY OP PikE, l6? 

ruined cities covered by the forests of thousands 
of years in Yucatan. 

*'The western lamp of knowledge was never light' 
ed from the east. From the proud seagirt conti- 
nent of Atlantis went forth, as from the sun, to all 
parts of the earth under the heavens, the Illumina* 
tion of truth and knowledge. 

''The old Atlantians, going forth in their galleys 
hither and yon, so controlled the Elementals by 
their knowledge of the Hidden Laws of Nature that 
they had no need to wait for the moving of the 
winds nor tides. Like Ohristos, who, in the storm ^ 
stilled the waves and bade them be at peace, and 
immediately they were at the place whither they 
were going, so the Atlantians moved over the widd 
wilderness of waters on earth, scattering the seeds 
of their knowledge along the shores they visited. 
The seeds fell into good ground in Egypt, Caldea 
and India. 

"It can be noted wherever the pressure of thd 
ever-recurring demands of the physical — that 
never-yielding circle of necessity-^^-was least on the 
matter over which the spirit sought to maintain 
dominion, meanwhile sinking deeper and deeper 
into its illusions with the downward rush of the 
cycle, there the seeds of Truth took root and greW 
most vigorously. At such points were more leisurei 
strength and purpose to bring forth, as fruity the 
knowledge of the unseen in its greatest perfection 
and abundance. Spirit domination is a tropical 
fruit reaching mature perfection only in those 
countries where the bountiful earth ministers vol- 



168 THE PHILOSOPHY OF PIKE 

untarily, always anticipating man's physical neces- 
sities, sun-cooked food does not stimulate groveling de- 
sires, 

''The dwellers in more rigorous latitudes, who, 
in spite of opposing force^ still gain spiritual eleva- 
tion for themselves^ are richer in strength and 
force. This is the result of the discipline acquired 
in the overcoming of the natural obstacles of their 
environment. The harder the battle the more important 
the victory. So long as Atlantis obeyed the law that 
makes all men gods in wisdom, so long it prospered 
mightily. But there came at last a time Vv^hen they 
who had the knowledge only in trust, permitted 
themselves to think, to wish and to plan for grasp- 
ing the absolute control of the ivhole ivorld. In this 
they sought to climb into the seat and place of the 
Supreme. Beyond the earth lies only the universe,. 
The lesser is but the result of the greater, 

*'The One denies no one knowledge. Whoever 
seeks to take from it, its authority, its supremacy, 
thus attempting arrogation or absorption into the 
Oneness in amy other than the appointed ways which 
lie open to all created^ beings^ shoivs atoAnt of grossness 
inspiring the desire,, surely j^rovocative of sivift destruc- 
tion. They who thus planned were powerful far 
beyond the conception of the mortal, holding at 
their option all the secrets of Nature save one, 
that one embracing the Infinite supremacy of the 
one, 

''These leaders had freely scattered knowledge 
abroad upon the earth. By self denial and long train- 
ing they had attained, and yet at almost the su- 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF PIRE 169 

preme moment, dazzled by the brightness of the 
Illumination, they looked once again toward. self. 
From their memories faded out the unchanging 
law; ^ Thus far and no farther^ shalt thou go.' The 
ceaseless breaking of the waves of the mighty sea 
against the silent resistance of rock-bound coasts, 
ceased to utter its warning to dazed mentality. 
The on-coming day, beginning of the end to those 
who had forgotten the very life and essence of the 
One, was at hand» The proud city of Atlantis, city 
and continent one, sitting as a queen upon the 
throne of the waters, had, by arrogant presump; 
tion, filled full the cup of wraith, for which expiation 
must be made. They — masters of all the Elements 
and all lawful knowledge of the Unseen — ^now 
sought the forbidden, as if the part should demand 
equality with the whole. Step by step they had 
reached the veil separating them from the white-- 
ness of the Immediate Presence; and now, as the 
last /a^aZ step, they had determined by the exercise 
of their most potent skill to rend the veil and come 
unheralded and unsummoned before the fact of It 
whom no man hath seen at any time. 

* 'Carefully -were their prepara^tions made, most 
accurately were the sacred computations wrought 
out to decide the auspicious hour, .... Panoplied 
with the consciousness of previous achievement! 
their call to the embattled hosts of the universe 
rang out along the astral currents. Confidently 
the word of power was spoken in all the pride of 
human will. The expected accomplishment did not 
follow. To their amazed horror they discerned a 



170 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

new vibration, a resultant of creative thought in 
its own defence. To this they had no key, and 
first bewildered, then terrified, they perceived 
that the immense force momentarily by their own 
act, had destroyed the accurate balance and adjust- 
ment of Nature's laws. Utterly without resource^ 
they waited for the outcome. 

''Thus knowing the inner, behold the outer. The 
sun rises in its eastern splendor. The mighty mil* 
lions who dwell in palaces and temples, in luxury 
and frugality, dream not of nor can they understand 
the word of the Omnipotent, already spoken and 
gone forth whereunto it was sent. They awake to 
their life of ease and pleasure with the self-assur- 
ance that the thing existing hitherto will still con- 
tinue to be. In their hearts they say: 'Have we 
not compelling power and force? Sufficient for the 
day is the evil thereof.' They pass on, without 
concern, to their usual affairs. Clouds begin to in- 
terrupt the clearness of the sky. They deepen 
and darken. The uncontrollable, elemental storm 
of the tropics, after years of durance, has burst 
its prisoning fetters. The people are awed by the 
terrific intensity of the outburst, but comfort their 
hearts with the idea that it will pass on as it has 
hitherto done. They know not that the sceptre 
had slipped from the hands of the former rulers, 
who, within the chambers of the Three, Five and 
Seven, in the great tower of the temple, now lie 
prone upon their faces, heroically awaiting the un- 
rolling of the book of just judgement. The cyclone 
becomes a continuous storm of day after day. The 



THE PHILOSOPHY OP PIRE 171 

rocking earth vibrates beneath their feet, and 
trembles with each new blast of the mighty forces 
of Nature, wind-enveloped, drawn here by human 
will, and now uncontrolled. The waters of the sea 
invade the land. Lashed on by the fierce currents 
upon their surface, the tides seem to be mounting 
higher and higher. It is now known that it was 
the sinking of the the land, and not the rising of 
the water, which for ages has hidden from investi- 
gation the abodes of the richest and most powerful 
nation ever dwelling upon the earth. Foot by foot 
all that had ever been given to us by the waters 
was again demanded, and returned to its origin. 
The records of thousands of years were buried be 
neath the storm-tossed waters — buried, but not 
destroyed. Only the mountain-tops and the high- 
est plateaus now known as islands, remained of all 
the vast continent. The inland lake mingled its 
waters with the incoming torrent from the salty 
ocean, and a great gulf waters the southern shore 
of the country, where now live in peace and won- 
der, over the hidden past, the same remcaraated 
mighty race. A few scattered books, written in 
stone, were saved, and a wall invisible and imperme- 
able, was built around the indestructible manu- 
script. Unseen and Infinite Power has thus pre- 
served useful knowlede until the times for the re- 
vealing shall have come. 

''Fear and dread for ages and ages after the aw- 
ful cataclysm, detained within the boundaries of 
their own country, the feeble remnant of a people 
once so invincible and venturesome. The rest of 
the world passed on and forgot them. 



172 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

''The story of the Light bearer who fell from 
heaven is the story of lost Atlantis. The legend of 
the great flood is the true narrative of facts of whose 
p.wfulness only the Atlantians had experience. 
They were forbidden to return to earth until the 
impetus of their knowledge should in some manner 
have spent itself, lest recurring memory tempt 
them to their own future pain. Thanks to the 
Ruler of Men, they are again to be permitted to 
pass out of the valley of that shadow into the possi- 
bility of new experience, life and knowledge. None 
but he who has lived under the awful shadow can 
understand what it is to exist outside of the Love 
currents of the universe, enveloped in the separat- 
ing displeasure of the Almighty. Such is the con- 
dition of those ivho seek selfish interest in 2^'^''eferenGe to 
the good and pleasure of others. 

"Such is the story of the lost Atlantis, a world 
in which men had reached earthly perfection, in 
which all power was given to them but the power 
to stand face to face with God. This they could 
not do nor can any man. They were not satisfied 
with their mighty power and as is the case with 
many Masters of the present day, they try to rend 
the veil that separates them from the mighty pres- 
ence of God, and — ruin and absolute loss of power 
is the result. The story of Atlantis is to be a warn- 
ing to all of those who would travel the Occult pass. 
*Thus far and no farther, may thou go.' It is well 
that all men should be careful for what purpose 
they use the power after they are once master of 
it, once they use it for selfish purposes, all is lost. 



THE PIilLOSOt»HV OP PlRE lT3 

**ln our present incarnation we study to recall 
the ancient teachings and methods of use in ouf 
unfolding, knowing that we gathered from out the 
*Golden Age' the 'One Word, One Principle, One 
Truth,' which will last as long as Eternity. Yett 
in each incarnation, we must recall the wisdom al- 
l^eady gained, and add new experiences as we con- 
tinue in the grand march of evolution. Therefore 
the new is built out of the oZd, and who knows but 
what we shall find some things that will prove the 
part we played in the drama of life on the stage 
Where the light first appeared in Atlantis, and 
where it disappeared to reappear in Egypt, flour- 
ishing for a time, but finally disappearing in India, 
leaving that great nation and its people in darkness^ 

Who knows but in turning to the great Pastf 
studying the ancient people and religions, we may 
regain some forgotten knowledge to give us the 
power to reach the place that God intended, when 
the * Word became flesh. ' 

*'Thereis but little revealed concerning the Art 
of Atlantis. A great deal can be said of the arts of 
ancient Egypt. Indian history tells us that the de- 
gree of excellence attained by that grand nation 
was of the most exalted kind. 

**Art as well as nations^ plays a part in the his- 
tory of progress, and we might say, in many res* 
pects of the human mind; for the mode of expres- 
sion is at all times a type, or symbol, of the tone or 
feeling which suggests it. In this, the Past isi 
linked with the present. Many consider all efforts 
in Art or life a sort of influence toward the perfect 



174 THfi FHILOSO^HY OF FIH© 

ideal. Therefore, the genius displayed in those 
days exhibits results more beautiful and perfect 
than that which came after that era. 

"All nations have their Arts, Sciences, and Re- 
ligions. They display magnificent temples, and 
palaces where the multitude can gather, giving of- 
ferings of physical, as well as spiritual nature to 
the Deity. The Arts of the ancients were con- 
trolled by, or dependent upon, their respective re- 
ligions, and flourished more or less according to 
the liberty allowed the Artist and the state of re- 
spect in which he was held by his fellowman. 

"Little can be traced concerning the Arts and 
Sciences of Atlantis, therefore allow me to quote 
something that has been revealed. Our own race, 
the Aryan, has naturally achieved far greater re- 
sults in almost every direction than the Atlantians. 
Where they failed to reach our level, the records of 
what they did accomplish are of interest as repre- 
senting the high- water mark which their tide of 
civilization reached. On the other hand, the char- 
acter of the scientific achievements in which they 
did outstrip us are of so dazzling a nature that we 
are bewildered by such unequal development. 

"The Arts and Sciences, as practiced by the first 
two Races, were, of course, crude in a degree. The 
history of the Atlantians, as of the Aryan race, was 
interspersed with periods of progress and decay. 
Eras of culture were lost in lawlessness, during 
which their artistic and scientific development was 
lost; being succeeded by civilization reaching to 
still higher levels. 



'the philosophy of fire 1^5 

''Architecture, sculpture, painting and music 
were all cultivated in Atlantis. From what has 
been gathered from nations in the near Past in re- 
S:ard to the development of Music, we cannot ex- 
pect that the Atlantians reached to any degree oi 
perfection. Their instruments undoubtedly were 
of the most primitive type; the music at the be^t 
was crude. 

**One thing is certain, that the Atlantians were 
fond of color, and brilliant hues decorated both in- 
side and outside of their buildings, but painting 
as we know it to-day as a fine art could hardly have 
been established. As time brought forth develop- 
ment of a love for studying Nature and depicting 
her beauties upon paper, or whatever material they 
used, drawing and painting must have formed a 
part of their school studies. 

** Sculpture, on the other hand, was most certain- 
ly taught to a very great extent and widely prac- 
ticed. It reached great excellence^ becoming in a 
religious way the custom for the rich to place in 
some of the temples an image of themselves. These 
were usually carved in wood, or a black stone. The 
wealthiest had their statues cast in one of the prec- 
ious metals, gold, silver, or aurichalcum. This 
metal was made from a yellow copper ore. Its 
lustre is pearly; its color pale green, sometimes 
azure. 

"Architecture was naturally widely practiced* 
as manifesting their respect and devotion to their 
religious beliefs, if we were to judge, believing a| 
we do that the Atlantians in fleeing from their di^= 



176 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

appearing country, found a resting place in Egypt, 
The Atlantians must have built massive structures 
of gigantic proportions. Their temples were be- 
yond description, but some of the buildings in the 
last World's Fair in Chicago v^ere built from some 
remaining memory in the minds of the architects, 
The future still holds the reproduction of other 
great temples. As time rolls on and the human 
family becomes more harmonious and cultured by 
the refining process of the Spirit, again the *One 
Word, One Principle and One Truth' shall dominate 
forcing through the spirit of harmonious vibration 
the desire for one Church or Temple, the Temple of 
Universal Brotherhood. This would call for the 
magnificent structures of the far distant Past, 
But a greater sens© of beauty would be marked as 
a gift from the ages of training, and simplicity 
would be the key note. 

"The history of Art in Egypt, which is a continU'- 
ing history of Atlantis, may be divided into two 
periods, each subject to various changes and revo- 
lutions. What took place during the reign of Hyk- 
sos, or Shepard Kings, and during the period of the 
Israelites' captivity, or the immediate generations 
preceding the eighteenth dynasty, or that of Rame- 
ses the Great, who lived about fourteen centuries 
before the birth of the Master, Jesus of Nazareth, 
may be considered the first beginning of Egyptian 
Art, of whice we know nothing beyond what is said 
in the book of Genesis and the account in Exodus. 
Both must be understood in their literal sense. 

■^Pliny tells us, according to their own accounts. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 177 

the Egyptians were masters of painting full 6,000 
years before it passed from them to the Greeks. 
The Art of Egypt was purely symbolic in its 
principles and historic in its practice; and was the 
tool of a hierarchy and its artists the slaves of super- 
stitions. Egyptian hieroglyphics appear to be 
simply records, social, religious, and political. 
Egyptian painting was accordingly more of a sym- 
bolical writing than a liberal art. 

'*The architectual remains that have attracted so 
much notice in Egypt during the last century are 
scattered along both sides of the Nile, for a distance 
of nearly a thousand miles. They consist of tem- 
ples, pyramids, obelisks and monoliths or large 
stone pillars. Very discordant opinions have been 
expressed as to the periods when these various 
monuments were built, but it is generally agreed 
that their construction must have embraced the 
long period of at least 2,000 years. Some, situated 
near the mouth of the Nile, having been construct- 
ed after the commencement of the Christian era; 
while others, high up in the country toward Abys- 
sinia, are believed to have been built nearly 2,000 
years before the Christian era. Whatever may be 
the difference of opinion on these conjectural points, 
it is agreed by those who know^ that Egypt disple.yed 
the most mighty examples of structures which 
were built ages before Greece and Rome were num- 
bered among the nations of the world, and that all 
other ancient structures may be best viewed by 
comparing them with those of Egypt. 

*'At a short distance from Denderah, now called 

12 



178 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

tipper Egypt, is the most extraordinary group of 
architectural ruins presented in any part of the 
world, known as the Temples of the ancient City 
of Trebes. Trebes in its prime occupied a large 
area on both sides of the Nile. This city was the 
center of a great commercial nation of Upper Egypt, 
ages before Memphis was the capital of the second 
nation in Lower Egypt; and however grand the ar- 
chitectural monuments of the latter may have been, 
those of the former must have surpassed them. 

''What sublime conceptions can be derived from 
such magnificent specimens of man's creation in 
architecture, not only in magnitude, but in form, 
proportion, and construction. The portrayal by 
pencil or brush can convey but a faint idea of the 
perfected city. As the city stands to-day it is like 
a city of giants, who after a long conflict, have been 
all destroyed, leaving the ruins of their various 
temples as the only proofs of their existence. 

''The Temple of Luxor (it was in this temple that 
the Grand Lodge of Initiates always met) stands on 
a raised platform of brickwork covering more than 
2,000 feet in length and 1,000 in breadth. It is the 
one that interests the members of all Ancient Or- 
ders, especially so all the members of those Orders 
that worshipped at the Shrine of the Secret Fire, 
more than perhaps any otherj and stands on the 
eastern bank of the Nile. It is in a very ruined 
3tate, but records say the stupendous scale of its 
porportions almost takes away the sense of its in- 
completeness. Up to about a quarter of a century 
ago, the greater part of its columns in the interior, 



1:he philosophy o^ fire lf§ 

and part of the inner sanctuary remained, but thg 
outer walls had been removed after falling, for use 
elsewhere. 

''This Temple (which figures more or less in the 
history of the different Occult or Mystical Orders 
as all originally come from one source and that 
source Atlantis, from the Atlantian Fire Worship- 
pers), was founded by Amenothis III, who con- 
structed the southern part, including the heavy 
colonnade over-looking the river; but the world is in- 
debted to Rameses II for the remaining portion^ 
but destruction unfortunately conceals this fact. 
The chief entrance to the Temple looked to the East; 
while the Holy Chamber at the upper end of the 
plan approached the Nile. As mighty as the Tem- 
ple of Luxor^ seems to have been, it was exceeded 
in magnitude and grandeur by that of Carnak. 
The distance between these two great structures 
was a mile and a hall Along this avenue was a 
double row of Sphinxes placed twelve feet apart 
and the width of the avenue was sixty feet. When 
in perfect state, this avenue must have presented 
the most extraordinary entrance that the world has 
ever seen. If we had the power to picture from 
the field of imagination the grand processions of 
Neophytes that were constantly passing through 
and taking part in the ceremonies of Initiation, we 
would be powerless to produce the grandeur of the 
surroundings and the imposing sight of color and 
magnificent trappings of those who took part; 
Neither can we produce the music that kept the 
vast number of people in steady marching order* 



180 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

Crude it may have been to the cultivated ear of the 
twentieth century. But could not the palpitating: 
strain sung by massed voices on the lapse of time^ 
v^hose history touches the profoundest aspirations 
of the human heart, like the trend of a mighty river, 
become the grand currents of Universal Lav^, im- 
parting the desire of that shadov^y Past, as it steps 
forth from the pages of a history dim with age? 

^'Egypt must have been, when these Temples 
were builtj a material nation; for records of its war- 
like deeds are perpetuated in deeply engraved tab- 
lets, which even now, excite the admiration of the 
best judges of archaeological remains. It was also 
a highly civilized nation and of a nature that could 
bear the expenditure which always attends the cul- 
ture of the Arts. Yet, as strange as it may seem, 
we do not know with any certainty, either its his- 
tory or its chronology. It surpassed, in its aston- 
ishing architecture, all other nations that have ex- 
isted upon the earth and yet the greater power and 
beauty which belongs to intellect was scarcely to 
be traced. 

"In those times, the armies of Egypt went forth 
to conquer and subdue the known physical world. 
But the knowledge and potency that found rest 
and culture at Atlantis, Luxor, and Elephantis, so 
permeated and controlled all nations that records 
of experience, becoming knowledge, have been pre- 
served even to the present day. So deeply were 
they impressed upon the unseen^ that they return- 
ing upon their cycles of development, have been 
considered by our age, as original inventions and 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 181 

discoveries. The earth-born forget nothing so 
easily as wisdom, or its possession. The Thrice- 
Wise said: 'There is nothing new under the sun.' 
But in our day, when instead of the best men and 
soldiers of a nationality coming forth from fair and 
beaatiful cities, arrayed for the conquest, the arm- 
ies of Egypt and Chaldea are swarming from out 
the unseen. They are overruning all countries 
where there is spiritual Light and Life enough to 
give them assurance of sufficient advancement to 
warrant their incarnation. They are hampered by 
the customs and restrictions of the mortal laws, 
and their own strict regard for all law. If there 
was one thing more than another that an Egyptian 
respected and venerated, it was the law under 
which he lived; the symbols of authority upon the 
throne; and the sign of Spiritual Presence in the 
temple. Urged on, however, by the impulses of 
the Higher Self, they are striving in this day and 
generation to the best of their unfolding, for their 
own progress, and for the consolidation of the 
Brotherhood seen and unseen. They have per- 
ceived it was absolutely necessary to rise above the 
mental impediments of their environments, and the 
^^7156671 brotherhood who are not yet ready to sup- 
port their colleagues, in manifestation, stand behind 
them rank upon rank. The impulse and the vibra- 
tion coming from these supporting columns, thrill 
along the soul formations of the past. The vibra- 
tions bring recurring memories, which whisper of 
the One, the great God Om, and of His truth. 
Everywhere, on all lines, these Ancient Ones are 

12 1 



182 THE PHILOSOPHY OP PIRB 

seeking to verify in the outer, what Cabalistic sym- 
bols and signs are, the Hidden Truths of Being, 
which from time to time have been whispered out 
of the intelligence and knowledge locked up in the 
Archives of the Astral Light library. 

"'Oh! You Neophytes, listen to the Voice that 
comes out of the Silence, and believe it for the 
truth's sake. You have not yet concentrated 
enough. Tlie Watch^Pire on the mountain top do 
not yet break down the darkness. So separated 
they contain within themselves, weakness. If they 
can be brought together, knowing each other's feel- 
ing and intensity of purpose, which demands sac- 
rifice of the modes of expression, of the spirit of 
the utterances, then it will be as if a thousand camp- 
fires were massed in one, and it became the beacon 
light of the world. The field is ripe for the harvest 
and the stalks are falling on the ground from the 
weight of the grain; will you save it? Will you ac- 
complish for yourself that which shall make the 
path of those who follow you easier? We have, in 
our Archives, the Mysteries, are you ready to re- 
ceive them? As Egypt in the olden time, when her 
star of glory was the highest, was mistress of the 
world, so now may you be full of potency and pow- 
er. Masters of the good, ready to lead on and place 
on record the conditions needed to bring about the 
opening again of that which was lost to those who are 
now crying, hungering, and thirsting for the truth. 

'*The true Egyptian knows whatever was lost, 
has not disappeared, in the sense of being destroyed, 
but is simply veiled. The Veil of IsiS is throvnx 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 183 

over it, and no arm since that time, has been strong 
enough, potent enough, tvUl-ful enough to tear it 
aside. The land of Egypt lies desolate, the strang- 
er treadeth within her gates, desolation broods over 
her temples, her palaces, her cities, and the Ar- 
chives and treasures of Incomparable knowledge. 
How long, O sons of Egypt! Brothers of the one 
family! Sons of the One! will you refuse or think 
it of little moment to take concerted and united ac- 
tion, that there may come to Light once again all 
the beauty and grandeur; all the potency and knowl- 
edge that have been waiting thousands of years, 
for the time and times when you should once more 
be upon earth. TFe, in our Secret Archives hold the 
documeats and the Mysteries of the temples. Are you 
ready to receive these Mysteries? Shall the cydes move 
071, and you having accomplished your pilgrimage, go 
hence into the Unseen leaving all unrevealed that might 
have come to you; and thus all the world to await the un- 
folding of another cycle? Ton are face tofaee toith aU 
that ever h^as been. The means are in your hands; the 
world is before you; the potencies of the most ancient 
knowledge with the direct influence of the search-light 
pouring upon it is your birthright. Take o^nd use it. 
Commence at once and persist, until you have reached 
that point where you can say to the physical, stay, as I 
shall have need of thee. 

"Egypt has left us no memory of a Homer, a Peri- 
cles, a Plato, or a Xenophon. A single Hebrew 
writer, Moses, gives us a clearer insight, a more 
exact and truthful view of the actual state of that 
land than we can gain from any of its monuments. 



184 THE PHILOSOr^fft OP FIRE 

or written remains,or from Herodotus or any other 
Greek. The chief idea presented to us in the rapid 
sketches of the book of Moses, is that of powe^i"— 
absolute power. *I am Pharaoh, and with me none 
shall lift up his hands or foot in all the laud of Egypt. ' 
All travelers on their journeys stand amazed at all 
the prodigies which surroud them on every side^, 
but the chief fact is the same. Power, must 
have created all these things; for, in the Twentieth 
Century of the Christian era, to reproduce the 
works which can be found even in the present, at 
Luxor and Carnak would be utterly and entirely 
impossible. 

These powerful works should teach us that with- 
out unity and Brotherhood nothing can be done. 

So long as the Atlantians were united and obeyed the 
Supreme Law, all was well, but no sooner did they fol- 
loiv the flesh and become dis-united, when the fall came. 
This is the history of not only the Atlantians^ but also of 
the Egyptians. 

So long as we are disunited and self-seeking, we 
are creating both the visible and invisible realms, a 
feeling of opposition that grows stronger and 
stronger, as we increase our momentum of individ- 
uality. To this condition, by the very essence of 
its existence is necessarily drawn all other discord- 
ant forces. Singly, they hold, perhaps, but little 
energy, but like grains of sand, in united action, 
can weigh tons. It is strange how long it has tak- 
en man to learn this lesson of unity from the physi- 
cal world; but as he will not let go of his physical, 
and look towards the spiritual side of himself, he 



THE P H i JUO SOPHY OPPIRE ISS 

must recMve the chastisements that are the inevita- 
ble consequence. When he does come to the time 
and place, where from the spiritual side of himself j 
he perceives a new view from his contemplation. 
This does not help self as a center of action or a 
starting point of force;but it holds out; it makes 
unity of harmonious action the main spring of all 
life. 

Ttie**words of the wise" to man, consequently 
ring and echo with injunctions to him of the im- 
portant import: "Obey the law — the word of the 
Supreme Will." ^'Do the will of the Father." 
These reiterated words of advice are forever rever^ 
berating through the arches of space. The more 
we declare we will not obey, but will follow our own 
short-sighted inclinations in the direction of our 
desire and pleasure, the more we shall be sure to 
become tangled in savagery. Here we run against 
the immutable law. bringing upon ourselves, the 
condign punishment or pain, by which only our ani- 
mality can be trained. It is we and aot God who is 
benefitted by our conformity to law — that natural 
order of things. Thus we as animals, have been 
and are gradually forced to perceive that the por, 
tency of united action is the only way by which we 
may hope to succeed. To be eminently successful^ 
is the only result if we are truly on the basis of Uni- 
versal Law, the only right method of action. 

Under the impress of the spirit, we become de- 
sirous of being of some service to all our fellows^ 
even if it is no more than to eat at the second table; 
When we have come to this point, it is no longer 



186 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIBE 

possible for us to hold enmity againt our fellows, 
Qven in behalf of our most carefully cultivated feuds. 
What others may do, often causes annoyance, but 
never that unrelenting setness, we knovf as hatred, 
which like the hardening of a plaster cast, binds 
into an immovable and inflexible limitation, influenc- 
ing even astral conditions to both the hater and 
bated. 

The reader may think that I am transgressing 
by quoting from Secret records, but I am not. In 
giving a history of a people or an order, it is neces- 
pary to give the cause of their fall so that other Or- 
ders or people may take warning from the past and 
not fall into the same error as those people of the 
past and also to point them the way as to what to do 
in order to avoid the downfall. 

'*It is a mistake to look at an Egyptian Temple in 
the light of a Church, or even of a Greek Temple. 
Here no public worship is performed; the faithful 
do not congregate for public prayer; indeed, no one 
}s or was admitted inside the Sanctuary except the 
priest and the Initiates of the Order. In some, not 
even the King, unless he was an Initiate, was al- 
lowed at aU times. The Temple is a royal prosce- 
nium, that is, a token of piety from the King who 
erected it in order to deserve the favor of the Gods. 

^*The Egyptian Temples are always dedicated to 
three Gods — a Triad. The first is the male princi- 
ple. Second, the female principle. Third, the off- 
spring of the two. Creator, creating, and creation. 
Thus the three Deities are blended into one, expres- 
sing no beginning or end. We thus prove that the 



THE PHILOSOPHY O ^. PlRte 18? 

Ancient Mysteries were taught and celebrated 
First, in Atlantis; Second, in Egypt; Third, in Ele- 
phantis. These proofs we have. In all of the Tem^ 
pies of these places the Fire Philosophy was taught 
a^ it has been throughout all the Secret Orders 
since the time of Ancient Atlantis. Of the Fire 
Philosophy of Atlantis^ Egypt and India, not much 
can be said in a history as they are secret and not 
to be divulged to the profane. Only a small part of 
these instructions may be quoted from the secret 
manuscript in order to prove that such was the 
philosophy of the ancient Masters. 

"Each spark contains the Hame consciousness 
belonging to every soul, which evolves finally into 
manifestation. In it, and under all, rests the eter^ 
nal Essence, the Never-Dying Flame which once 
lighted, (Soul awakened) bridges the Eternal Past 
with the Eternal Future. It is the Life Existent, 
the Soul of Fire. It is the Only True Way, the In» 
finite God. 

The Mighty Spirit of the Flame has no destruc- 
tive essence tvithin itself. But it holds all powers 
by Divine commission, to create the light that 
glorifies and uplifts everything that it shineB upon; 
The central Fire (God) radiates to the circumfei-- 
ence and there touches the periphery of ail its ex- 
istence. Again returning to the Center, it holds 
ensouled within its vibrations, other souls to be il^ 
luminated and become self -radiating from the sam^ 
Great Fire. The fire of all the Gods is kindled from 
and concentrated in one Great Grod! 

"Since the beginning of days, sacrifices have 



188 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

been laid upon the altar of Fire. In all ancient 
writings are we told of the common fire; the sacred 
Fire and of Sacrificial Fire, What means the fire 
upon the altar? What means the Mysterious Light; 
the incense soaring in misty waves, as a Soul ex- 
pands in exaltation; the air heavy with its exhaled 
perfume: the solemn multitude of lamps, which 
with their richly wrought golden arbra gleams 
about Shrine and tabernacle? What? But that 
Fire, ascending toward heaven in its pristine, blue- 
ness and triangular shape, is the profoundest symbol 
of the supreme life-giving power, 

"Watching the leaping flame^ the Triangle plainly 
manifests itself. The base below ^ the apex point- 
ing up, is from the beginning put forth is symbolic 
of the Unseen, the Unknown God, There is noth- 
ing in all the world that holds so completely within 
itself, all the attributes of the Supreme int.eliigence. 
The point reaching upward is always the node of 
superior energy, the Center of Life and sensation. 
Hence, the apex of the fiery triangle must be the 
Absolute, for the real j}o^e?ict/ of Fire appears at the 
moment of contax^L . ■ ,. 

^' The spirit of tire we cognize as Life. Wherever 
God is, there Fire, as the Holy Ghost, will, also be. 
Wherever Fire is, there is Life, Wherever Fire rests, 
there manifestation will be, 'IfFfreis Life, then it must 
hold within itself tT}e _ Divine ^ Intelligence . Hence the 
flame. The essential essence of the flame is Life— God, 
If Fire is God and God is Love, the essential Fire must , 
be Love and thus we can only find the fire, through Love 
and God through the fire. The manifested fire can 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF PIRE 189 

siveep away all maii^s possession, and destroy his body, 
but the Essence dropping into the. Secret Place of the Most 
High, the maelstrom or vehicle, which holds Within itself 
the Unseen charm of all existence, lights the ilame that 
makes man Immortal, 

''Where man worships, the lights burning upon 
the alter, are symbolical of the Divine Energy, of 
generation and regeneration. These flaming lights 
encircle the most holy point of the ancient mosques. 
They glow in ambient beauty about the Shrine of 
saints and the churches of the Eternal Cities. They 
burn constantly in Mystic attestation before the 
tombs of the Redeemers. Always and everywhere, 
they are and always have been, a silent witness and 
sign to the Initiate, of the origin and significance 
of the Sun Worshippers. 

Man seeing fire struck out from the cold, unyield* 
ing flint, comes to believe, the coldest, hardest stone 
must have a heart of fire. All Nature is built upon 
the Divine Fire. The flagstone of matter shuts it 
down, waiting for the great Central Sun to drop a 
ray of fiery essence into the bosom of Mother Earth, 
It thereby creates sufficient impulse to cause it to 
stream forth, unwind its starry limbs, and step in- 
to manifestation. This fire descending upon the 
alter of Mother Earth holds concealed as its ulti^ 
mate, the Secret of Life. 

''The lily bulb contains the same forceful fire^ 
It possesses the Creative Energy to rise from the 
lowest to the highest. The Lotus is the whole les- 
son and law of transmutation. By its own function 
and growth the law of the Creative Energy acts. 



190 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

The gross becomes the supernal. The supreme 
atom of the hly and all else that is, has kindled, at 
the base of this Altar of the Waters, the Eternal 
Essence of Life, which is fire. When it reaches the 
surface, in manifesting beauty, there burns vMMn 
its bosom — White Chalice of the Gods, the Heart of 
Fire~t\iQ tongue of flame of the Holy Spirit. Hav- 
ing descended into matter for the purpose of taking 
hold of the material, it converts the opaque into the 
brilliant purity of the Highest Transmutation. The 
Holy Spirit does not really descend, but only places 
Itself in touch with that which is lower. What a 
beautiful illustration of the True Initiation we have 
here. The secret is so plainly unveiled that all who 
have eyes may see, 

"The fire springing out of the Etheric and Auric 
vibrations, is the highest Esoteric Fire, born of the 
spontaneous action of the positive and negative 
forces. We gaze with awe upon its multiform 
shapes; its trails of sparks; its flame wreaths; scin- 
tilating, wavering arches and vortices, starting up 
out of the matrix of apparent solidity, reducing its 
source to its own ultimate invisibility. 

Ilame is significant of rebirth and Resurrection; of 
the Spiritual horn out of the material. It is sym.bol and 
substance at once^ of the Immortality of the Ego. Hence 
the Angel of Fire hath dominion. Above all, is the 
glowing supernatural flower of Love, concealed in 
the inanimate womb of matter. The great love of 
the physical world, whose warmth and ardor des- 
troys the material and perceptible form, is sym- 
bolized by the enwrapping flame. Freed from its 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 191 

prison of limitation and thus formless, it gives re- 
birth to the spirit, in both the Seen and the Unseen 
worlds. 

'^Tlie Fire God^ the Beautiful^ the Resplendent! Con- 
ceived in the Land of Silence! Born out of the ivomb of 
Mystery! Thou art the Shadow of the Shadowless! 
Thou art the Causeless Cause! The existent God, We 
worship not the Fire., but that which represents the Fire 
—^Love, 

"There is no power but Love, strong enough to 
hold through all the complex problems of earth life. 
It is Love that meets us as we cross the threshold 
of the narrow gate. It is Love that looks into 
our eyes, as we close them in the last earthly sleep. 
It is Love that greets us, when the Gates of Para- 
dise swing inward for our reception, after onr long 
or brief pilgrimage in the mortal realm. Love is 
that which abides, and is as eternal as God. This 
is the Love that dies not. They who love truly, can 
easily and cheerfully put aside self for the Beloved. 
Whoever returns to earth searching for who he seek, 
can only find and rejoin them, by entering into this 
realm of Omnipotence. Love is a guide which will 
never fail. Love will restore the loved ones to each 
other should they ever be lost. 

"Love, the Law, in its fulfilling, must hold for it- 
self, both an inflowing and an outflowing current. 
The ebb and flow of the life blood, is symbolical of 
the give and take of love in activity. He who loves, 
lives in the highest realm of the alldife. He who 
loves counts all things but loss, if he may but win 
and hold the true love and real affection of the one 



192 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

loved. The true lover, takes labor and toil by the 
hand, as benefactors and boon companions, leads 
them into verdant pastures giving fresh hope to the 
tired and overtaxed heart. Love tunes the Harp 
of Life to the perfect vibration of the At-One-ment. 
When played upon by the hands of Fate and Des- 
tiny, and discord made thereby, may be harmon- 
ized by the soft, lingering touch of Love, the Divine, 
the Perfect Harper! 

Listen! All social problems lie in the conquest 
over the Natural and personal man. It is the con- 
tinual protest over the Natural Law. Rising into 
the v^orld of Love and self -consciousness, we rise 
into a world of freedom and equality. A great 
teacher has said: "Man is a composite being. In 
him is the angelic and the animal. The spiritual 
training of life means no more, than the subjugation 
of the animal; and the setting free of the Angelic. "^^ 

*'There is a great and wonderful epitome founded 
upon having, and holding in our possession, the 
key that unlocks all doors, and the knowledge of 
how to use and handle it. That key is Love. He who 
loves lives; he who loves not, is dead; he who loves 
himself alone, lives in hell, because centering all the 
essence of existence upon his own body, he burns 
and shrivels under the intolerant intensity of its 
force. He who loves others, lives in heaven, because the 
desire to love and bring good, reacts and compels har- 
mony. " 

Such are the secret instructions that have come 
down to us for ages from the grand temples that 
once stood upon the shores of Atlantis. These are 



THE PHILOSOPHY O^ Pi RE 193 

but few of the mighty secrets held in secret crypts 
of our sacred Occult Libraries. 

The Templars as Fire Philosophers. 

The great men and inquiring spirits among the 
Templars had penetrated to the very depth of the 
mystery of the ever-living, supernatural Fire and 
had taught it to their Initiates as they had been 
taught by the Saracens. It is supposable that, at 
the suppression of this grand, warlike, and monas- 
tic Order — so bound by the injunctions of a secret 
formula, which, in all the persecutions of the Camps 
or Lodges, never appeared to the eyes of the world, 
but was denied; — many of the things of which they 
were accused, such as Magical ceremonies and so- 
called Pagan rites, wizard-trances and sacrifices, 
etc., were satisfactorily established (in their trials), 
as matters of which they were indisputably guilty. 
We know that they had their rites and ceremonies, 
but we also know that these rites and ceremonies 
had a different meaning from that interpreted by 
religious fanatics and self-constituted investigators 
who knew nothing of the Deeper Occult Sciences 
and who must be called the real Pagans and wor- 
shippers of Rome and the golden-calf. 

We know that there was nothing more in the de- 
nouncement and extinction, at the same time, all 
over Europe, of these religio-knightly or monastic- 
military orders — in whose ranks fought, and taught, 
some men of the most powerful, and most daring, 
understanding of the period — than the jealousy of 

13 



194 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

their povrer, and fear of their influence and the de- 
sire of their riches and worldly accumulation. We 
know that secret and forbidden studies (as in all 
Fraternities) were pursued by them; that under 
the protection and yet in the refusal (as it seemed 
to the profane and religious fanatics) of the Cross, 
and as from behind their holy and militarily won- 
drous character, the Arch-leaders among them 
(whether chieftains of mind or of arms) closely hung 
on the track of philosophy until it vanished into 
transcendentalism, or the so-called (because so- 
called religious beliefs were no more accepted by 
them than they are at this time by the Members of 
Mystic Fraternities) atheistic, and by Occult and 
Cabalistic means established relations with the Un- 
seen (as we do to-day), seeking to hold communica- 
tions with the Spiritual world. 

The round form of their Temples — as they were 
styled by the Brotherhood; — their various insignia 
and habits; their secret Book; — their rites — all seem 
to bespeak a knowledge, and do so speak to the Ini- 
tiate, of the true Fire-Philosophy: — misunderstood 
and perverted in the hands of all hut those ^ who, of 
the Order, had risen to the highest knowledge in it — and 
who rose to truth — into the indulgence of sensual ap- 
petites and the denial of the future life, and, con- 
sequently, of the fullest and the morally darkest, 
though the most worldly luscious epicureanism. 
This was not the fault of the mighty Philosophy 
known and taught by them, but the fault of those 
would be followers who did not try to understand, 
and who did not desire to follow the true teachings. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF P i tl E l95 

but who only wanted an excuse for their miserable 
outrages. 

Whilst the chiefs of the Order of the Templars 
had penetrated to truths the most astoi i*h'ng 
though, necessarily, undivulgeable (especially in 
that superstitious and ignorant age; of which, in- 
contestably, they were far forward), the,y paid the 
usual penality of their great knowledge in being de^- 
cried, and burnt as magicians. Simply because the 
time was not prepared — if, indeed, any time can be — 
for that which they could tell. They, and their 
whole body, therefore, appeared, in the exaggera- 
tions of the Church, and in the magnifying m.edium 
of the terror which their doings inspired, as thirst- 
ing for seemingly impossible things. Climbing, as 
in their cowls and mail, as a stormingladder of pre- 
sumptuously supposed lightning-proof, steel, and 
under the mask and shield of the Cross, into the 
imagined, accursed (according to the profane) cham- 
bers of the Magic, devilish Fire: the treasure house, 
or home, or Hell of the forbidden gods, rich in all 
possible Ethereal and human splendors! The Tem- 
plars did only that which we, of the present school 
are doing, only, the masses have become more en- 
lightened and while we may be accused by the ig- 
norant, persecutions are past and we have better 
learned to be silent 

The famous Beauseant, or banner of the Tern- 
plars, was part-colored — that is, divided down the 
centre, in two halves of "black and white." This 
figuring- forth of the utterly opposed colors, is gen- 
erally taken to signify the immitigable hatred of 



196 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIKE 

the Templars for the Infidels, but their abiding love 
and benignity towards the Christians, This total 
friendship, or uncompromising abnegation would 
be heraldically denoted in the perfect contrast of 
the black and white halves, or "^fields/' of the Tem- 
plars' ensign, divided parti-per-pae. But, when we 
remember that the ^^-yptians my thed their Perfect 
Divinity J or Cause of AU^ under (of this world) the 
hopeless, empty color of Black, in opposition to 
White, or Matter-Light which was taken to signify 
"This World, and the Glory of this World;" and, 
when we recall that the proper robes, or vestments, 
or Magicians, when invested in their Cabalistic pan- 
opy and armed for charms — as directed by the au- 
thentic formula— are of the colors White and Black, 
we grow into another sort of belief regarding the 
meaning of this Templar banner, Mystic as it is, 
and we conclude that it fell back, for its 7^eal hiero- 
glyph, upon the Fire-Creed or Philosophy. This 
faith of the fierce Deistical East, and of the Guef re; 
Gubh, or Gaur. And this, surely, not without rea- 
son. Nor does the Order of the Knights of St. John 
of Jerusalem, who, in the grandeur of their stately 
galleys, made of the Mediterranean a royal sea, 
and elevated the Islands of Malta, and of Rhodes, 
almost into the splendors of an empire set on the 
water; nor does this Order escape the imputation 
of wrong-doing — of being betrayed in the signs and 
the hieroglyph of the secret, reprobated, Infidel 
doctrine. Their colors, the fashion of their arms, 
and their attire, in which — ^in priestly or any other 
orders or communities — lies much of meaning, glanc- 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 197 

ingup to justifiable Christian suspicion in the wizard, 
heretical half-light. In short, it is held that the 
Teutonic Knights, or the soldier monks, of St. John 
of Jerusalem, as equally as the Templars, as very 
questionable Christians. Though this imagined in- 
fidelity might be only confined to the Heads of the 
Chapters: the great body of the Knights being 
merely directed. 

In the persecutions of the Knights Templars, 
which are generally known, a certain mystification 
and secrecy may be observed: as if the whole of the 
charges against them were not brought out publicly. 
This arose from various causes. The persecuted 
were really very religious, and were bound by the 
most solemn Masonic oaths (and Masonry was inti- 
mately connected with these matters) not to divulge 
the secrets of the Order. The impression is very 
general that these persecutions were undertaken 
for the sake of the wealth of the Order. This is 
not the only reason, there were other, and deeper 
reasons. Hate, jealousy and fear were of the great- 
est reasons. 

The so-called heathenish doctrines to which al- 
lusion has been made, are visible everywhere in the 
curious mystical figures always seen upon the mon- 
uments of the Templars; in the fishes, bound to- 
gether by the tails, in the tombs of Italy, and ap- 
pearing on the vaulting of the Temple Church, Lon- 
don; — in the astrological emblems on many chur- 
ches, such as the Zodiacs on the floor of the Church 
of St. Irenaeus at Lyons, and on a church at York, 
and Notre Dame at Paris, and Bacchus, or the God 



198 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

1. H. S., filling the wine-cask, formerly on the floor 
of the Church of St. Denis. Again, in the round 
Churches of the Templars, in imitation of the round 
church at Jerusalem, probably built by them in the 
Circular, or Cyclar, or Gilgal form, in allusion to 
various recondite subjects, and in the monograms 
I H E and X H in thousands of places. We, of the 
present day, know that these doctrines were not 
heathenish in any sense but that they had and still 
have, the most wonderful mystical meaning and 
that they figure in all true Initiation and in all the 
Philosophies. Symbolism has never been under- 
stood by the masses and ever a strange and abso- 
lutely false meaning will be given to these symbols 
and ceremonies by those who do not, and never can 
understand them. It is well that this is so. 

At every turn we meet with some remnant of so- 
called Paganism, It is a rather extraordinary 
thing that the Christian Templars should call them- 
selves Templars in honor of the Temple, the des- 
truction of which all so-called Christians boasted of 
as a miraculous example of Divine wrath in their 
favor to Christians. This then, goes to prove the 
Templars much older than the Crusades, and that 
the pretended origin of these people is totally false. 
There is a certain suspicion entertained, not with- 
out reason, that the origin of this community may 
be looked for in the College of Cashi, and the Tem- 
ple of Solomon in Cashmere, or the lake, or mere, 
of Cashi. The Gymnosophists, the Kasideans, the 
Essenes (from whom the Christ received his Initia- 
tion), the Therapeutae (later, and at present, the 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 19^ 

Rosicrucians), the Dionesians, the Eleusianians (fol- 
lowers of the Essenes), the -Pythagoreans (who 
were really Rosicrucians), the Chaldeans were, in 
reality, all an order of religionists, who included 
in their religion, both Philosophy and true Mysti- 
cism. Including among them, who were, in fact, 
the heads of the Societies. 

The Teutonic Knights seem to have been the first 
instituted. But it is thought that they were graf ten 
upon a class of persons — charitable devotees — who 
had settled themselves, as the historians say, near 
the Temple at Jerusalem, to assist poor Christian 
pilgrims who visited it; although the real temple 
had dissappeared even to the last stone, for a thou- 
sand years. This shows how little use these his- 
torians make of their understandings. The Teu- 
tonic Knights are said to have come from Germany^ 
from the Teutonic tribes. Let us hasten to relieve 
North Germany from the weighty and undeserved 
honor. The word Teut is Tat, and Tat is Buddha. 
The name of Buddha, with some of the German na= 
tions, was Tuisto or Tuisco, derived from whose 
name comes our day of the week — Tuesday. From 
Tuisto or Tuisco came the Teutones, Teutisci, and 
the Teutonic Knights, and the name of Mercury 
Teusco. Perhaps, Mercury I'7^ismegitus. 

The round church of Jerusalem, built by Helenai 
the Mystic Helena (daughter of Coilus), mother of 
Constantino, who was born at York, and the chap 
ter-house at York, and at other cathedrals, were 
reproductions of the circul^ar Stonehenge and 
Abury. The choirs of many of the cathedrals in 



200 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

France and England are built crooked of the nave 
of the church, for the same reason, whatever that 
might be, that the Druidical temple is so built at 
Classerniss in Scotland. All the round chapter- 
houses of our Cathedrals were built round for the 
same reason that the Churches of the Templars 
were round. In these chapters and the crypts, till 
the thirteenth century, the Secret Religion or true 
Fire Philosophy was celebrated far away from the 
profane vulgar. These buildings have been thought 
to be the representative successors of the caves of 
India, and afterwards of the cupola- formed build- 
ings there, of the Cyclopean Treasury of Atreus at 
Mycenae, and of the Labyrinths of which we read 
in Egypt, Crete, Italy and other countries. These 
labyrinths could be only for the purposes of relig- 
ion, and, it is not to be doubted, of that religion of 
the Cyclops which universally prevailed. The un- 
der ground crypts of our cathedrals, with their for- 
ests of pillars, were labyrinths in miniature. There 
is something about the circular churches of the 
Templars which seem very remarkable. We have 
only four in England, we believe, of the churches of 
the Templars, namely: those in London, at Maple- 
stead in Essex, at Northampton, and at Cambridge 
— and they are all round. This form, we are told, 
was adopted in imitation of the round church at 
Jerusalem. But how came the church at Jerusa 
lem to be round? Perhaps Phallas Worship had 
something to do with this form. We are led to be- 
lieve so at least. Again, how came these Christian 
Knights to be caUed by the name of the detested 
Jewish Temple? 



THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 201 

The Templars were divided into orders exactly 
after the system of the Assassins, Knights, Es- 
quires, and Lay-Brethren answered to the Refeck, 
Fedavee, and Laseek of the Assassins; as the Prior^ 
Grand-Prior, and Grand-Master of the former cor* 
respond with the Dai, Dai-Al-Kebir, and Sheik of 
the mountain of the latter. 

As the Ishmaelite Refeck was cladia white, with a 
red mark of distinction^ so the Knight of the Temple 
wore a white mantle, adorned with a red mark of 
distinction — the Bed Cro&s, It is remarkable that 
they were called ^^Illuminators," And it is to be 
suspected that the red mark of distinction, kept 
back as common to both Templers and Ishmaelites, 
was red eight-point cross, or a Red Rose on a Cross. 

The Templars were accused of worshipping abe^ 
ing called Bahumid and Bafomet, or Kharul Von 
Hammer says that this word, written in Arabic, 
has the meaning of *'Galf , " and is what Kircher calls 
Anima MundL It is difficult not to believe that this 
**Kharuf"is our "Calf." The Assassins are said 
to have worshipped a Calf. If these latter have a 
Calf in use as an emblem, it maj^ be justly consid- 
ered as a proof that, contrary to the prevailing ideas 
concerning them, that they are a tribe of extreme 
antiquity; (a branch of the Atlantians) which, though 
holding the doctrine of the Ten Incarnations, yet 
still clings to the ancient worship of Taurus. There 
is a picture, in Russia, of the Holy Family, in which 
the Calf is found instead of the Ram. A learned 
author pronounces that the doctrines of the Assas- 
sins and the Templars were the same. 



202 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

All Temples were surrounded with pillars re- 
cording the numbers of the constellations, the signs 
of the Zodiac, or the cycles of the planets; and each 
Templum was supposed^ in some way, to be a micro- 
cosm, or symbol, of the Temple of the universe, or 
of the starry vault called Templum, It was this 
Templum of the universe from which the Knights 
Templars took their name, and not from the indi- 
vidual Temple at Jerusalem, built probably by their 
predecessors, and destroyed many years before 
the time alloted to their rise; but which rise, it is 
suspected, was only a revivification from a state of 
depression into which they had fallen. 

Theatres were originally Temples, where the 
mytJios was scenically represented. And until they 
were abused they were intended for nothing else. 
But it is evident that, for this purpose, a peculiar 
construction of the Temple was necessary. When 
Scaurus built a Theatre in Greece, he surrounded 
it with 860 pillars. The Temple at Mecca was sur- 
rounded with 360 stones. And, in like manner, 
with the same number the Templum at lona, in 
Scotland, was surrounded. The Templars were 
nothing but one branch of Masons, perhaps a 
branch to which the care of some peculiar part of 
the Temples was entrusted; and there is probabil- 
ity that the name of Templars was only another 
name for Casideans. 

In the Western part of Asia, in the beginning of 
the twelfth century, the sect or religious tribe called 
Ishmaelites, or Battenians, or Assassins, arose. 
These ''Assassins" were first noticed, in the West- 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 203 

^rn world, with their chief Hakem Bermrillah, or 
Hakem-biamr-allah, who was held up, in Syria, as 
the Tenth Avatar, or, as it is assumed, incarnation. 
His ideas of God w^re very refined. The first of 
the creatures of God, the only •pYoduction irmnediate 
of His power, was the intelligence universelle^ which 
showed itself at each of the manifestations of the 
Divinity on earth; that by means of this minister, 
all creatures were made, and he was the Mediator 
between God and man. They called themselves 
Ututarimis. This intelligen(ye ^/niverselle is the Logos, 
Easir, or Buddha. 

It would seem probable that the followers of Bem- 
rillah were originally adorers of Tauras, or the Calf 
of Calves, which they continued to mix with the 
other doctrines of Buddha. It must be rem em- * 
bered that this worship of the Calf is not to be tak- 
en in its literal sense but is only a symbol of the 
Lamb or Christos, The hidden. Living Fire indwell- 
ing in all men and coming from God — Love, 

Chaldean implies Sabaean. (Another sect of Fire 
worshippers or Fire Philosophers.) The word 
Chaldean is a corruption of the word Chasdim; and 
this is most clearly the same as the Colida, and Col- 
chida, and Colchis of Asia, and as the Colidei and 
Culdees of Scotland. Now all this, and the circum- 
stances relating to the Chaldees, often called Math- 
ematici, to the Assassins, the Templars, Manicha- 
eans, etc., being considered, the name of the Assas- 
sins, or Hassessins, or Assanites, or Chasiens, or 
Alchaschisin, will not be thought unlikely to be a 
corruption of Chasdim, and to mean Chaldees or 



204 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

Culdees, and that they were connected with the 
Templars. We can thus trace them as in no other 
way. When the Arabic emplatic article AL is tak- 
en from this hard word aZ-chas-chischin, it is Chas- 
chis-chin. The Assassins, were, also, called Druses 
or Druiseans. The learned author of the "Celtic 
Druids" states that he has proved these Druses to 
be both Druids and Culdees. In all accounts of 
the Assassins, they are said to have existed, in the 
East, in considerable numbers. They are, also, 
stated to have been found numerous by B. de Tud- 
ela not far from Samarcand or Balkh: — where he 
also describes many great tribes of what he calls 
Jews to live, speaking the Chaldee language^ occupying" 
the country, and possessing the government of it. 
He says that among these Jews are disciples of the 
taise men. He tells us that they occupy the moun- 
tains of Haphton, Here are, it is to be thought, the 
Afghans^ and that too clearly to be disputed. Under 
the word Haphton lies hid the word Afghan, and 
the disciples of the wise man, Hakem, frequented 
the Temples of Solomon in Cashmere, etc., and 
were called Hakmites,Ishmaelians,and Battenians 
that is Buddheans. The word Hakem is nothing 
but the word HKN, which in the Chaldee means 
wise. All physicians, in the East, are called Hakem. 
All this goes to prove that not only did the Tem- 
plars share doctrines with the Assassins and Ish- 
maelians, but that they were much older than the 
Crusades, and that the pretended origin of these 
people is totally false. The Gymnosophists, the 
Casideans, the Essenes, the Therapeuttae, the Dio- 



THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 205 

nesians, the Eleusinians, the Pythagoreans, the 
Chaldeans, the Assassins, and the Buddheans were 
all an order of rehgionists, including among them, 
and consisting in great part, an Order of Monks, 
who were, in fact, the heads of the Society. 

There is no doubt but that all the Caliphs of the 
Saracens were, secretly or openly, Sophees. The 
Sophees are divided, at this day, into many sects, 
and, in their four stages, they have a species of 
Masonic, or Eleusinian, initiation from lower to high- 
er degrees, and this Order, it may be truthfully 
said, has some of the greatest Mysteries in their 
possession, now held by any Order or Fraternity 
in the world at this day. Sir John Malcolm says, 
Hassan Sabah, and his descendents, were a race of 
Sophees, and that they were of the sect of Battan- 
eah, that is Buddha. They were Templars, or 
Casi-deans, or Chas-di-im, or followers of Ras or 
Masons. 

The use of the Pallium, or sacred cloak, to convey 
the character of Inspiration, was practiced by the 
Imaums of Persia, the same as practiced by Elias 
and Elishah (Eli-shah). And it is continued by 
their followers to this day. When a person is ad- 
mitted to the highest degree, he will receive the in- 
vestiture with the Pallium and the Samach. When 
the Grand- Seignior means to honor a person, he 
gives him a pellise, a Pall, a pla^ a sacred cloak, a 
remnant of the old superstition, the meaning prob- 
ably being quite forgotten. Prom this comes the 
word '*palls" at our funerals. 

One of the names, which excites the greatest 



206 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

curiosity as to its meaning, of the chief of the As- 
sassins, was "Old Man of the Mountain" — senex de 
montibus. The Buddwa of Scotland was called *'old 
man;" and Buddha, in India, means old man. The 
opinion that the Assassins were Buddaists receives 
confirmation, in part, from the idea that he was 
reckoned as representative of the *'ancient of days. " 
The representative idea, or form, or figure by which 
the Prophet speaks of the Divine Intelligence — 
"Ancient of days," whose hair was wool, of a white 
color. But in Persia^n, according to Sir John Mal- 
colm, the word sofee means both wisdom and wool. 
It is possible that from this idea we obtain the white 
goats' hair cloaks of the Albanians, with their 
"snowy camese and their shaggy capote;^^ the white 
bernoose of the Moors, the white robes of the Car- 
melites: even the white uniforms of the Austrian 
army — nay, the sacred acceptation, and the sup- 
posed enchanted value, of the color white generally. 

That the renowned and dreadful tribes of Assas- 
sins, or Ishmaelites, whose history presents such 
an inextricable connection with that of the Tem 
plars, and also with that of the Hospitallers, were 
acquainted with, if not professors of the Fire-Creed 
of Zoroaster, (so little understood by the profane) 
from which, indeed, they derived their atheistic 
desperation, will be apparent when we examine 
their belief. 

What was really the object of the worship of the 
Knights Templars, in their secret synods, none but 
the Initiate may know. Whether, indeed, in their 
intercourse with infidels, they had not imbibed 



THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 207 

some of the ancient, traditionary ideas, and learned 
the religion of the inhabitants of that part of Asia 
bounded by Persia, on the one hand, and by the 
Mediterranean on the other, seems a point more 
readily settled in the affirmative. In this view, 
Flame-worship would have passed a part of the 
adopted rites. We are thus brought to contem- 
plate the Templars not so much in the light of a 
new superstition, as in the brilliaiiGy of the Philosoph- 
ic position of the Magi in the old world of thought, 
and of the Rosicrucians, Brethren of theRosy Cross, 
or illumiaati, in the new. 

Lamps and cloisters, lamps and altars, lamps and 
shrines, lights and tombs, lights {Hre) everywhere, 
are connected ideas. The romance lingering and 
brightening about which strange subjects may have 
its origin in the real, philosophic, unsuspected truth 
which gives life to their meaning even for all time. 
Romance never has life except for the truth which 
underlies it. With these Fires among the graves — 
with the ultimate and funeral burning — with the 
2:)yre of the classics and the Fire-immolations of the 
Orientals — with the Sacred Fire of the Magi, and the 
cressets and the torches of the Christian Knightly 
Fraternities, we connect the Ever-Burning lamps, 
(always representing true Love and Immortality to 
the Initiate but simply heathenism to the masses 
and profane) of which we have archaeological 
accounts, and the suspected, Ishmaelitish, Bohemi- 
an or Fire- Worshipping Mysticism, which is noth- 
ing but Fire, or Love (God) worship, Harbored as 
the '^strange thing" among the cowles and stoles. 



208 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

amidst the crosses and the books, and glancing, as 
the fiery crested snake (which is but a symbol of 
Love or Fire Wisdom) from among the resplendent 
arms of the supposed (by the profane) renegade 
Templars. 

To this striking object of tomb-Lights — incoher- 
ent in any other view than as the attestation, through 
the ages, of a Universal, though a Secret Faith, 
Walter Scott accidentally (and unconsciously of its 
meaning) makes reference when he adjures the dy- 
ing lamps as burning — 

"Before thy low and lonely urn, 

O gallant chief of Otter bourne; 

And thine, dark Knight of Liddesdale!" 

Of the "grave of the mighty dead, " Michael Scott, 
the wizard of such dreadful fame, he also says that, 
within it — 

"Burned a wonderous light; 

Which lamp shall burn unquenchably;" 

which means the Soul, the Fire, the Love in man. 
The only serious hold which it is possible to gain 
over the minds of men is through the influence of 
the supernatural. It is absurd and inconsequential 
to believe that all the wonderful effects which the 
Templars and other Fraternities of Devotees, which 
seemed bound by a religion produced in their time, 
could have sprung from no higher motive than the 
desire to aggrandise — to overpower — to rule — to 
force. Wonderful things — unbelievable things — 
miraculous things— impossible things— must have 
been offered to the common-sense of the men of the 



THE PHI I. O SO PHY OF PIRB: 209 

age, before they would have given in to the authority 
which became to them as that of angels, of spirits, 
and of the gods. It is no slight task to master the 
resisting common-sense of the world. That which 
is invincible, except at conviction. Instincts at de- 
tection were as strong then as now. We are accus- 
tomed, every day, to the infaliabie judgements of 
common-sense. That decision as to what a thing 
is, is as independent of us as the sense of light. 
Quick wit, sharp wits, hardness of unbelief, sus- 
picion, the same reason as is at work now— these 
were identical in the dark ages— in any age that 
man was man. Prophecy must have been wonder- 
fully verified— the assumed magic must have been 
demonstrated real— something not at all a fraud-- 
first, before imaginative and enthusiastic men, 
themselves, could believe it; second, before plain 
men could accept that which sense assured was im- 
possible. 

There existed in those secret societies, the 
dreams, trances, visions, magic-spells, magic-sight, 
which made princes of the Seers. It is in this sec- 
ret medium— whatever it may be— whether con- 
jured out of the capacity of man in the intoxication 
of narcotics, through fumes, anointings, training, 
or lapsing put of the prisoned sense into the unim- 
prisoned sense:— it is in their new world that the 
explorers stumble upon unbelievable, though real, 
things. Of a piece with the miraculous prevision 
obtained by the Grand Master of the Templars, in 
his agony, as noticed hereafter, was. the following 
two instances of forecasting, which, as far as can 
14 



210 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

be affirmed by records, are definitely established. 
The Priestess Phoennis, the daughter of a Chaonic 
King, foretold the devastating march of the Gauls, 
and the course which they would take from Europe 
to Asia, together with the destruction of the cities, 
and this a generation before the event happened. 
The King Phrrhus had received an oracular sen- 
tence—that he was destined to die as soon as he had 
seen a wolf fighting with a bull. The sentence was 
fulfilled when in the market-place of Argos, he saw 
a bronze group representing such a combat. An 
old woman killed him by throwing down a tile from 
a house. 

The Assassins, as a secret sect, had a kind of Uni- 
versity among them. The course of instruction in 
this university proceeded, according to Macrisi, by 
the following nine degrees. 

The object of the first section of instruction, 
which was long and tedious, was to infuse doubts 
and difficulties into the minds of the aspirant, and 
to lead him to repose, with a blind, admiring confi- 
dence, in the knowledge and wisdom of the teach- 
ers. To this end he was perplexed with extraordi- 
nary, and seemingly unanswerable^ questions. 
The absurdities of the literal sense of the Koran, and 
its repugnance to reason, were studiously pointed 
out. Dark hints were given that, beneath the shell 
of the philosophy taught, lay a kernel sweet to the 
taste and nutritive to the soul. But all further in- 
formation was most rigorously withheld from the 
inquiring mind until the disciple had consented to 
bind himself , by a most solemn oath, to absolute 
faith and obedience to his instructor. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 211 

In the second place, when the aspirant had taken 
the prescribed oath, be was admitted as a member 
of the second degree, in which was inculcated the 
acknowledgement of the particulars appointed by 
God as the sources of all knowledge. This included 
science, and the arts and truths of life. 

The third degree included the knowledge of far- 
ther important facts, and the connection, and suc- 
cession, and power of those facts. It also informed 
the student what was the number of the blessed 
and holy imams. And this wa« the mystic seven; 
for as God hath made seven heavens, seven earths, 
seas, planets, metals, tones, and colors, so seven was 
the number of the noblest angels, spirits, or attri- 
butes of God. Religion, as yet, was not outstept. 

In the fourth degree, the pupil learned that God 
had sent seven lawgivers into the world, each of 
whom was commissioned to alter and improve, or 
rather to develop, the system of his predecessor: 
that each of these had seven helpers, who appeared 
in the interval between him and his successor; 
these helpers, as they did not appear as public 
teachers, were called the mute {samit), in contradis- 
tinction to the speaking lawgivers. The seven law- 
givers were Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus^ 
Mohammed, and Ismail, the son of Jaaffer; the seven 
principal helpers, called Seats (Soos), were Seth, 
Shem, Ismael the son of Abraham, Aaron, Simon, 
All, and Mohammed, the son of Ismail. It is just- 
ly observed by the discerning Hammer that, as this 
last personage was not more than a century dead, 



212 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIKE 

the teacher had it in his power to fix on whom he 
would as the mute prophet of the present time, and 
inculcate the belief in, and obedience tOj him of all 
who had not got beyond this degree. 

The fifth degree taught that each of the seven 
mute prophets had twelve apostles for the dissemi- 
nation of his faith. The suitableness of this num- 
ber also proved by analogy. There are twelve signs 
of the Zodiac, twelve months, twelve tribes of Israel, 
twelve joints in the four fingers of each hand, and 
so forth. This all proves that this school was found- 
ed on facts that were absolute and not to be contra- 
dicted then or at the present time. 

In the sixth place, the disciple being carefully led 
thus far, and his mind being duly prepared for 
what followed, the Koran, and the precepts con- 
tained in that book of authority, were once more 
brought under consideration, and he was told that 
all the positive portions of religion, and all the facts 
of faith, must be subordinated to the laws of nature 
and reconciled to the lights of philosophy, or be re- 
jected as perhaps necessary to the apprehension, 
though intrinsically worthless. In fact, man here- 
in was thrown back upon nature, and taught to dis- 
cover the exterior influences alone in it. Then suc^ 
ceeded, for a long space of time, instruction in the 
systems of Plato and Aristotle. When esteemed 
fully qualified, the scholar was admitted to the sev- 
enth degree, in which knowledge was imparted in 
that mystic Pantheism which is held and taught by 
the sect of the Sofees. This was Buddhism, with- 
out the supernatural light of Bhuddism. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 21 



o 



As an eighth step into the arcana of philosophy, 
the positive doctrine of religion were considered in 
their light as a necessity to man, and as resulting 
from his position here in this world. All the com- 
plicated knowledge which had now preceded was 
declared, in the forward stage of the student's 
progress, to be merely as the scaffolding by which 
the pihng of the structure of real knowledge was 
to be effected. All the builder's platforms and his 
poles, his work being now complete, were to be 
thrown down. Prophets and teachers, heaven and 
hell, all the shows of life, its history, the machinery 
of the world, the human soul, were nothing. Fu- 
ture bliss and future misery, reckoning for evil, 
conscience beyond the necessity of the maintenance 
of regularity in the world, aspiration for good out 
of the pleasant things of the world, justice and mod- 
eration beyond that common-sense of economy for 
the longer lasting, the intrinsic value of life, and the 
detriment from the destruction of it other than in 
the policy of a certain blank atheistic ''political econ- 
omy " — all these were to be exposed as idle dreams, 
having nothing to do with the philosopher, whose 
sight had been cleared by a magic illumination, 
darkening or eclipsing, or overpowering, or putting 
out the false light of the world. Even as the light 

of day is drawn over the stars like a curtain. 

In this absolute laying-level of the barriers of 
right and wrong, the point of view became consis- 
tent as showing that all actions should proceed, 
alone, from the center point of self -pleasure in them, 
that power was right and that right was power, and 
that all laws were imported only into the world as 

U I 



214 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

securing the harmonious going on of it. That, in 
the absolute sense, there could be no such thing as 
sin; that therefore, in the absolute sense, there 
could be no such thing as punishment for it. There- 
fore, that nothing was to be feared on the score of 
conscience. Life was as a weed. 

The ninth and last degree was that into which 
the disciple transcended (in this alarming sense), 
as seeing that, as nothing was to be believed, every- 
thing might be done. 

Von Hammer argues an identity between the two 
orders, as he styles them, of the Ishmaelites and 
the Templars from the similarity of their dress, 
their internal organization, and their secret doc- 
trine. The color of the Khalifs of the house of 
Ommiyah was white; hence the house of Abbas, in 
their contest with them, adopted black as their dis- 
tinguishing hue. Hassan Sabah, when he formed 
the institution of the fedavee, or the "Devoted to 
Death," assigned them a red girdle or cap. The 
mantle worn by the members of the Hospital was 
black. 

The last Grand Master of the Templars, Jacques 
de Molay, together with his companion, Guy, 
brother to the Dauphin of Auvergne, were brought 
forth and placed upon a pile erected upon that point 
of the islet of the Seine, at Paris, where afterwards 
was erected the statue of Henry .IV. It was a day 
of March— the 19th, as it is stated by the historians 
— 1314. The two unfortunate Templars suffered 
with constancy, to the last asserting their inno- 
cence. The spectators wept and shrieked at the 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF BURE 215 

spectacle of their sacrifice. During the night their 
ashes were gathered up to be preserved as rehcs. 

Molay, ere he expired, summoned Clement, the 
Pope who had pronounced the bull of abolition 
against the Order and had condemned the Grand 
Master to the flames, to appear, within forty days, 
before the Supreme Eternal Judge, and Phillip to 
the same awful but just tribunal within the space 
of a year. Both predictions were f uUfilled and thus 
was justice meted out. The Pontiff did actually 
die of a colic on the night of the 19th of the following 
month. More dreadful still, the church in which 
his body was deposited in state, took fire, the flames 
spread, and the corpse of Clement was half consum- 
ed. The King, before the year had elapsed, by an 
accidental fall from his horse, suffered such injury, 
that he, also, died. The fuUfiUment of these two 
prophecies showed to what extent the Masters of 
the Order had developed and produced great effect* 
The unfortunate Templars were justly regarded as 
Matyrs. 

We know that the general — nay, the universal be- 
lief is to the contrary — but that the Order of the 
Knights Templars, in certain forms, has continued 
down to the present day. The King of Portugal, in 
his dominions, formed the Order of Christ out of the 
Templars. The Freemasons also were connected 
with the ancient Templars; and there is a society^ 
bearing the name of Brethren of the Temple, whose 
chief seat is at Paris, and its branches extend into 
various countries, and into England. Jacques de 
Molay, in the year 1314, in anticipation of his speedy 



216 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

matyrdom, appointedJohannes Marcus Lormenius 
to be his successor in his dig^nity , and there has been 
an unbroken, though secret, succession of Grand 
Masters down to the present time. The secret doc- 
trines of the Templars were partaken of by the 
Knights of the Order of St John of Jerusalem we 
also have proof of. Signor Rossetti, who possessed 
a very intimate acquaintance with the history of 
the Hospitallers, maintains stoutly that there is 
much in common between the doctrines taught in 
the higher grades of the Freemasons — more, also, 
that has been lost — and the views, formulae^ and 
fashions of the Order of the Temple. True Masons, 
who know the spirit of their Fraternity as well as 
the rituals, know that Masonry sprung from the 
Templars. 

Lost in the clouds of antiquity, the dim forms 

of the mailed Templars disappear. Their buildings, 
their churches, their haunts remain. But the in- 
habitants are passed into the shadows. Their re- 
membrances and their secrets only survive in the 
quaint courts of the Temples. The fact that their 
dwelling-place was once within the present purlieus 
of law — that the notes of their wild Eastern music, 
and that the ceremonies of their strange, deeply 
Occult worship, were in the time that has almost 
become a dream, real matters in the story of those, 
at present, so unromantic buildings — truths amidst 
this wilderness of mechanical-law-spelling: — these 
things of a life, so unlike our present life, lend an 
interest to the very name of the Temples yet stand- 
ing, holding their secrets as ever and defying the 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 2l7 

crude and unnatural investigations of the profane 
but so well'known to the true Initiate. 

There exist real personal memorials of this an- 
tique and wonderful body of the Templars pre- 
served, in secret at the present time, in Paris. 
Some of the archives and statutes — portions of the 
unexamined history — even some of the mystic ban- 
ners, and an assortment of the arms of the broth- 
erhood; still survive. These are kept in unknown 
but not in obscure or dilapidated buildings as some, 
for want of knowledge, seem to think. Strange 
that the world should think that the secrets of such 
a mighty sect of Fire Philosophers, once living, 
should ever die. Such things cannot be, God 
does not allow it to be. 



The Therapeutae and Essenes and 
Their initiation 



I^HE Order of the Essenes constituted in the 
time of Jesus the final remnant of those 
Brotherhoods of prophets organized by Sam- 
uel. The despotism of the rulers of Palestine, the 
jealousy of an ambitious and servile priesthood, had 
forced them to take refuge in silence and solitude. 
They no longer struggled as did their predecessors, 
but contented themselves with preserving their tra- 
ditions. They had two principal centres, one in 
Egypt, on the banks of Lake Maoris, the other in 
Palestine, at Engaddi, near the Dead Sea. The 
names of the Essenes they had adopted came from 
the Syrian word assaya, a physician — in Greek, 
therapeutis ; for their only acknowledged ministry 
with regard to the public was that of healing dis- 
ease both physical and moral. They studied with 
great diligence certain medical writings dealing with 
the occult virtue of plants and mineral. 

It is on account of the Syrian word ^^Assaya," that 
the mistake is made in regard to the Essenes and 
Therapeutse. The Therapeutse was only a branch of 
the Essenes with but different duties. 

The branch kno^^ai as the Therapeutse had their 
home chiefly on the Lake Mareotis, near Alexandria, 
but also had colonies in other places. Like the parent 
Order — the Essenes, they lived unmarried, in mon- 



220 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

asteries, and were very moderate with regard to 
dress and food; they prayed at sunrise having their 
faces turned to the East; studied the Secret Doctrine 
and Greater Mysteries of Antiquity. They differ- 
ed from the Essenes in that they lived a contempla- 
tive life, while the Essenes followed many occupa- 
tions, such as agriculture, arts, sciences, etc. The 
Essenes lived together in common; the Therapeutse 
lived separately and alone. The Therapeutse, being 
of the Outer Degree, knew none of the divisions 
which marked the several degrees of Initiation of 
the Inner Circle — the Essenes. Both Orders re- 
sembles the Pythagoreans and the teachings were 
identical. Neither used animal food, and both the 
Inner and the Outer admitted women to their as- 
semblies and Initiation. 

The Essenes, living a more active life, bore a very 
important, though secret part in the development of 
Judaism. John the Baptist belonged to their ranks 
before Christ was admitted. 

Some of themi possessed the gift of prophecy, as, 
Menahim, who had prophesied to Herod that he 
should reign. They served God with great piety, not 
by offering victims but by sanctifying the spirit; 
avoiding towns, they devoted themselves to the arts 
of peace; not a single slave was found to be among 
them ; they were all free and worked for one another. 
The rules of the Order were very strict as was neces- 
sary in such times. In order to enter, a year's noviti- 
ate was necessary. If one had given sufficient proofs 
of temperance, he was admitted to the ablutions, 
though without entering into relations with the Mas- 
ters of the Order. Tests, extending over another 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 221 

two years, were necessary before being received into 
the Brotherhood, They swore ^'by terrible oaths'' to 
observe the rules of the Order and to betray none of 
its secrets. Then only did they participate in the 
common repasts, which were celebrated with great 
solemnity and constituted the Inner worship of the 
Essenes. The garments they had worn during these 
repasts they looked upon as sacred and to be re- 
moved before resuming work. These fraternal Love - 
feasts, primitive form of the Supper instituted by 
Jesits,* l^egan and ended by prayer. The first inter- 
pretation of the sacred books of Moses and the proph- 
ets was here given. But the explanation of the texts 
allowed of three significations. All this wonderfullly 
resembled the organization of the Pythagoreans, but 
it was almost the samie amongst all the ancient 
prophets, for it is the same wlierever tr^e initiation 
has ever existed. The Essenes professed the essential 
dogina of the Orphic and Pythagorean doctrine ; that 
of the pre-existence of the soul, the consequence and 
reason of its Immortality. The soul descending from 
the most subtle ether, and attracted into the body by 
a certain natural charm, remains there as in a prison ; 
freed from the bonds of the body, as from a long 
servitude, it joyfully takes its flight. 

Among the Essenes, as has been stated, the broth- 
ers, properly so called, lived under a community of 



* This Love-feast is kept up by many of the churches, es- 
pecially those known as the *'Dunkards," "Methodists/' but 
what a mockery it is. The Essenes and the Christ never even 
tasted meat, much less used it at the Love-feast, but these 
churches must have their Roasted meats in order to have the 
Love-feast of the Christ. Blood! blood must be everywhere. 



222 THE PHILOSOPHY OW FIRK 

property^ and in a condition of celibacy, cultivating 
the grovind^ and, at times, educating the children of 
strangers. The married Essenes^^ for there were 
g^uch, formed a class aiSliated and under subjection 
to the other. Silent, gentle, and grave, they were to 
be met with here and there, cultivating the Arts of 
Peace. Carpenters, weavers, vine-planters, or garden- 
ers, never gunsmiths or merchants. Scattered in small 
groups about the whole of Palestine, and in Egypt^ 
even as far as Mount Horeb, they offered one another 
the most complete hospitality. Thus we see Jesus 
and his disciples journeying from town to town, and 
from province to province, and always certain of 
finding shelter and lodging. Thus it is ever with 
the true Initiate. *^Do unto others as you would 
that they should do unto you.'' 

The Essenes, as all true Initiates, w^ere of an ex- 
emplary morality, they forced themselves to suj> 
press passion and anger; transmuiing it into Love. 
Always benevolent, peaceable, and trustworthy. 
Their Avord was more poAverful than an oath, w^hich, 
in ordinary life, they looked upon as superfluous, 
and almost a perjury. They endured the most cruel 
of tortures, with admirable steadfastness of soul an<i 
smiling countenance rather than violate the slighi- 
est religious precept. Indifferent to the outward 
pomp of worship at Jerusalem, repelled by the harsh- 
ness of the Sadducees, and the prayers of the Phar- 
isees, as well as by the pedantry of the synagogue, 
Jesus was attracted towards the Essenes by natural 
affinity. 

From the Essenes, Jesus received what they alone 
could give him : the Esoteric tradition of the proph- 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF PIRE 223 

ets, and bj its means, his own historical and reli- 
gious tendency or trend. He was taught how wide 
was the gulf that separated the official Jewish doc- 
trine from the Ancient Wisdom of the Initiates, the 
veritable mother of religions, though ever persecut- 
ed by Satan — by the spirit of evil, of egotism, hatred 
and denial, allied with absolute political power and 
priestly imposture. He learned that Genesis, under 
the seal of its symbolism, concealed a theogony and 
cosmogony as far removed from their literal signi- 
fication as is the profoundest truth of science from 
a child's fable. He contemplated the days of Aelo- 
him^ or the eternal creation by emanation of the 
elements and the formation of the worlds, the origin 
of the floating souls, and their return to God by pro- 
gressive existences or generations of Adam. He was 
taught the grandeur of the thoughts of Moses, whose 
intention had been to prepare the religious unity of 
the nations by establishing the worship of the on-^ 
God, and incarnating this idea into a people. 

He was instructed in the doctrine of the divine 
Word, already taught by Kmshna in India, by the 
priests of Osiris, by Orpheus and Pythagoras in 
Greece, and known to the prophets under the name 
of The Mysteries of the Son of Man and of the Son 
of God. According to this doctrine, the highest man- 
ifestation of God is man, who, in constitution, form, 
I organs and intelligence is the image of the Universal 
/ Being, whose faculties he possesses. In the earthly 
devolution of humianity, however, God is scattered, 
split up, and mfutilated, so to speak, in the multipli- 
city of men and of the human imperfections. In it 
he struggles, suffers, and tries to find himself, he is 



224 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

the Son of Map, the Perfect Man, the Man-Type, 
the profoundest tlioiight of God, remaining hidden 
in the infinite abyss of his desire and power. At 
certain epochs, when humanity is to be saved from 
some terrible gnilf, and set on a higher stand, a chos- 
en one identifies himself with divinity, attracts it to 
himself by strength, wisdom, and love, and mani- 
feets it anew to men. Then, divinity, by the virtue 
and breath of tlie Spirit, is completely present in 
him: the Son of Man becomes the Son of God, and 
his Living Word. In other ages and among other 
nations, there had already appeared sons of God, 
but since Moses, none had arisen in Israel. All the 
prophets were expecting this Messiah. The Seers 
even said that this time he would call himself the 
Son of Woman, of the Heavenly Isis, of the divine 
light which is the Bride of God, for the light of 
Ix)ve would shine in him. 

All these secrets which the patriarch of the Es- 
senes unfolded to the young Galilean on the solitary 
banks of the Dead Sea, in lonely Engaddi, seemed to 
him wonderful, but yet known. It was with no ord- 
inary emotion that he heard the chief of the Order 
comment on the words still to be read in the Book 
of Henoch : ^Trom the beginning the Son of Man Wjas 
in the Mystery. The Father kept him near his 
mighty presence, and manifested Mm to his elect. 
But the Kings shall be afraid and shall prostrate 
themselves to the ground with terror, when they shall 
see the Son of Woman seated on the throne of his 
glory. Then the elect shall summon all the forces 
of heaven, all the saints from on high and the power 
of God; and the Cherubim, the Seraphim^ the Opha- 



THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 225 

nim, all the angels of Might, all the angels of the 
Lord, L e,, of the Elect, and of the othe?^ Might, serv- 
ing on earth and above the waters, shall raise their 
voices.'^ 

I have thought best to give this much concerning 
the Essenes and their teachings in order to make 
plain what the Essenes were. Very little is know^ii; 
of them in the Christian church although the Mas- 
ter- — Christ was of them. The church even denies 
that Christ was an Initiate and disbelieves that such 
a thing as Initiation exists. It is strange that this 
should be so and no one is to be thanked more for 
this state than Constantine. 

A history of the Philosophers would not be com- 
plete without dwelling on the Essenian Order for the 
reason that the Ancient Mysteries took another form 
after the Initiation of Christ. Their teachings are 
therefore of vital importance and show that the 
Essenian Fraternity knew the teachings of all other 
Orders or religious beliefs and that it was but a con- 
tinuation of previous Orders under another name. 
And what of the teachings concerning Initiation ? In 
secret records we find the following: 

"The union of God with the soul is the principle 
of all Mystic life. But this union, the fulness and 
final consummation of which cannot be experienced 
till death has been passed through and eternity has? 
been achieved, can be accomplished on this earth in 
a more or less perfect manner, and the literature of 
entire Mysticism has no other end than to unveil to 
us, by a full and profound analysis of the different 
stages of evolution in the spirit of man, the diverse 
successive degrees of this Divine union. Seven dis- 
15 



226 THE philosophy" OF FIRE 

tinct stages of the soul's ascent towards God have 
been recognized by Mystics^ and they constitute what 
has been ejiiblematically called the Castle of the In- 
terior man. They represent the seven absolute pro- 
cesses of psychic transfiguration. The first link in 
this Arcane sequence is called the state of prayer, 
which, from the pneumatic standpoint, is the con- 
centration of the intellectual energies upon God as 
the object of thought, which is commonly assisted 
by the ceremonial appeal made by religion of the 
senses. It has, however, a higher aspect, comprised 
in the second evolutionary process, and called the 
state of mental prayer. Here the illusionary phen- 
omena of the visible world, are regarded as informed 
with the Inner pneumatic significance, to divine 
which is a chief end of Mysticism. In order to make 
progress therein, and so attain the third stage, it is 
necessary that the Aspirant, shaping all practical 
life in conformity with this theory, should perform 
no outward act except with a view to its inward 
meaning, all things which are of time and earth, and 
man being simply figures and symbols of earth and 
heaven and God. The postulant as he advances will 
perceive that the inmost thoughts of his own con- 
science being are only a limited and individual spec- 
ulation of the speech or word of God, concealed even 
in its apparent relevation, and itself a veil of the 
Divine truth which must be removed for the con- 
templation of the truth absolute, which is behind it. 
When he has reached this point the Mystic will have 
entered on the third stage of his illumination. This 
is the iribst difficult of all. It is termed by Mystics 
the obscure night, and here it is necessary that the 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF PIRE 227 

aspirant should become stark naked, — should empty 
himself completely, should be stripped of all his fac- 
ulties, renouncing all his own predilictions, his own 
thoughts, his own will — in a word, his whole self. 
Aridity, weariness, temptation, desolation, darkness, 
are characteristic of this epoch, (see Initiation of 
Christ), and they have been experiences by all who 
have ever made any progress in the Mysteries of 
Mystical Love. The fourth condition is denominat- 
ed the prayer of quietism. Complete immolation of 
self and unreserved surrender into the hands of God, 
have respose as their first result. Such quietism, 
however, is not to be confounded with insensibility, 
for it leads to the soul real activity, to that which 
has God for its impulse. The fiftli degree in the 
successive spiritualization of the human soul is called 
the state of union, in which the will of man and the 
will of God become substantially identified. This 
is Mystical irrigation which fertilizes the garden of 
the Soul. During this portion of his development, 
the Neophyte, imbued with a sovereign disdain of 
all things visible, as well as for himself, accomplishes 
in peace, serenity, and joy of spirit, the will of God 
supernaturally speaking within him. On the ex- 
treme further limit of this condition, the Mystic en- 
ters the sixth state, which is that of ecstatic prayer, 
which is the soul's transport above and outside itself. 
It constitutes a union with Divinity by the instru- 
ment of positive love which is a state of Sanctifica- 
tion, beatitude, and ineffable torrents of delight flow- 
ing over the whole being. It is beyond description, 
it transcends illustration, and its felicity is not to 
be conceived. Love which is a potency of the soul, 



2^8 THfc pnitosopnY OP winn 

or of the anima which vivifies our bodies, has passed 
into the spirit of the soul, into its superior, divine, 
and universal form, and this process completed com- 
prises the seventh and final stake of pneumatic de- 
velopment, which is that of ravishment. Renounc- 
ing all that is corporeal about it, the soul becomes a 
pure spirit, capable of being united, in a wholly ce- 
lestial manner to the Uncreated Spirit, whom it be- 
holds, loves, serves, adores above and beyond all 
created forms, and this is the Mystic marriage,* the 
perfect union, and entrance of God and Heaven into 
the interior of man. 

We have thus the teachings of the Essenes w^hich 
show that they were but a continuation of the Secret 
Doctrine and Mysteries of Antiquity. It proves that 
true Initiation is to-day as it was in the time of the 
Christ. Since then, the Mysteries are better known 
as the Christian Mysteries. They are all the same 
and will ever continue to be the same. Truth never 
changes and no matter under what name, or by what 
Order these Mysteries may be taught they are the 
same as were taught at Atlantis and by all the great 
Saviours since then. In order to more fully under- 
stand this Initiation of man into the Mvsteries, we 
will need to understand the Initiation of Christ by 
the Essenes, more fully and as we find them given 
to us in ^The Life of Jeh^abjia (Jesus), the Prophet 
of Nazareth," by Dr. Hartmann. 

'^After Jesus had entered the Essenian temple, he 
was led into the presence of the assembled priests. 
They questioned him in regard to his object in de- 

* See *The Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz.'* 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 229 

siring to enter tlieir Order, and admonished him to 
desist; warning him of the dangers that he would 
incur, if he insisted in pursuing his way to obtain 
knowdedge of the Secret Science and to come in pos- 
session of the powers which such knowledge con- 
veyed. They told him that if he were once admitted, 
there could he 7io possibility to retreat, as he mould 
have to succeed or lose his freedom and perhaps eveu 
his life; for powers of evil ivhich would be aroused 
would conquer him, unless he were strong enough to 
conquer them. 

Jesus was not to be intimidated; he desired to 
obtain knowledge and considered wisdom to be more 
valuable than life. He insisted upon being admitted. 
He received the blessings of the Brothers, and as 
each of these venerable men laid his hand upon his 
head, he felt an electric thrill pass through his frame, 
that seemed to invigorate him and to give him a 
power sufficient to overcome all dangers. After this 
he was given over to a guide called Thesmophores, 
who blindfolded him and led him away. 

He went with his guide through several long cor- 
ridors, from whose walls the echoes of their steps re- 
sounded, and they descended a flight of stairs until 
at last they arrived at the place of their destination. 
When the hood was removed, Jesus found himself in 
a cave hewn in the solid rock. It was a high arched 
vault with massive pillars, cut in a manner to repre- 
sent figures of men and fabulous animals. The only 
light which entered into the vault came through a 
round opening far up in the roof^ where a small part 
of the clear sky could be seen. Upon the walls of 
that prison were written proverbs and mottoes, con- 
15 I 



230 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

sisting of extracts from the books of the Egyptian 
and Indian sages who may have lived in the far-dis- 
tant past, perhaps even in prehistoric times, when 
that which we now call Europe formed the bottom of 
the sea, and another continent — Beautiful and 
Glorious Atlantis — was at the height of its civiliza- 
tion at a place where now the ocean rolls its waves. 

The room was furnished in the most primitive 
fashion, containing merely the most necessary requis- 
ites. The Thesmophores told the Neophyte — ^for 
such Jesus had become — that he would have to re- 
main here in solitude for an indefinite period of 
time. He advised him to occupy himself with think- 
ing of the nature of man and his destiny and to 
meditatiC about his own self. — ^^Man, Know Thy- 
self." He gave him some writing material and re- 
quested him to write down the thoughts that would 
enter his mind and seem important to him, and after 
taking leave of the prisoner and wishing him good 
success, the guide went away. 

Thus ivhen the free spirit seeking for knowledge 
sends its feelers into the tomb of living clay, blindly 
following the Law of Reincarnation ^ he finds him- 
self alone ivithout a guide, left to his own thoughts, 
and with only a faint light above coming from his 
former home^ while on the walls of the prison house 
called the Mind, he finds dim recollections of the 
teachings of wisdom acquired in previous lives. 

Jesus was now alone. There is nothing more ter- 
rible than isolation and solitude to those who know of 
no other life but that of external sensation and who 
cannot create their own thoughts; especially if there 
is no change in their surroundings, to attract their 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 231 

attention and to stimulate them to think. Thinking 
is an Art, and few can think what they wish or hold 
on to a thought. Men only thhik ivhat they must; 
they feed on the ideas that enter their minds without 
asking. Welcome and unvjelcome thoughts enter; 
they neither come at our bidding nor go away when 
they are not wanted; they are like disorderly guests 
that do not obey the 7^ules which the landlord pre^ 
scribes. 

The monotony in which Jesiis lived remained un-^ 
changed. There was no sound of any kind to be 
heard; he was surrounded by silence; and if it had 
not been for the small opening in the vault far above 
his head^ he would not have known the change of 
day and night. He studied the writings upon the 
walls, and impressed them upon his memory, analyz- 
ing their meaning; and the more he thought about 
them, the more his mind seemed to expand and new 
ideas entered. He could not tell from when they 
came, but he ^vrote them down upon the tablets with 
which he had been supplied; and often when in the 
morning he awoke from his slumber, these tablets 
had disappeared from his prison, and he knew not 
what had become of them. He saw no one enter the 
room, and yet somebody must have taken them away. 
Likewise the food with which he was provided was 
supplied by invisible hands. It was of the most 
simple kind, consisting of bread, milk, fruit, and 
water. It was daily brought to him in some inex- 
plicable manner ; how or by what means he could not 
tell, for it was put into his prison during his sleep. 
However, he soon ceased to be astonished at such 
strange occurrences and he began seriously the study 



232 THE PHILOSOPHY OT FIRE 

of self* As he became accustomed to look within his 
own soul^ a new world semed to open before him; 
his imagination grew stronger ;, and the pictures pre- 
sented before his inner eye became as objective and 
real to him as the objects of the external world, only 
more beautiful^ more ethereal^ and yet far more sub- 
stantial than the latter. Visions of things which he 
had formerly seen^ but which had apparently been 
lost to his memory, appeared again^ vivid and real 
with all their living details; desires entering his 
heart immediately took objective forms in his mind, 
representing in seemingly living forms the objects of 
w^hich he thought^ and thus he saw many beautiful 
things in his visions, but also many horrible sights, 
for no man is without evil, and evil thoughts that 
came to him were likewise represented in seemingly 
real but horrible form. 

What is this plastic power of the imagination, and 
what do men mean by calling subjective images 
''merely works of imagination V^ Can we imagine 
anything that does not exist? Are the creations of 
our thoughts less real to us than the things which 
the imagination of others created for us for all things 
must exist first in the imagination ? Is not the uni- 
verse itself a product of the imagination of God, and 
are we not gods in our own Inner world, able to cre- 
ate forms from the substance called the astral light? 

Gradually Jesus began to love this inner life, 
where he found a world as large as the outor world, 
with a space as infinite as that of the latter, with 
mountains and plains, with oceans and rivers, and 
peopled with beings of various kinds that looked up 
to him as their god, their creator, drawing life from 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 233 

his Will, and nourishment from his Thoughts, in the 
same sense as Man receives his will-power and ideas 
from the God in the universe, - appearing to him in 
his dreams while asleep, and in visions while awake* 
Thus Jesus lived in the world of the Elemental Pow- 
ers of Nature, and began to know the constituent 
parts of that organism called the human soul. 

Weeks, perhaps months, thus passed away. We 
cannot say how long he remained in that tomb. He 
kept no record of the days and nights since he had 
entered there, and what is time and space, after all, 
but merely mental conceptions by which we attempt 
to measure the Infinite? But one day steps were 
heard to approach, and the Thesmophores entered, 
congratulating him on his success and inviting him 
to come to the Portal of Man, to enter as a Neophyte 
into the first degree of the Holy Brotherhood. 

They entered a large park, through which they 
passed, until they arrived at an entrance called the 
Door of the Profane. There they found a great 
miany people assembled who had been attracted by 
curiosity to see the new candidate for initiation, for 
such a rare event was not kept secret as it was de- 
sired thatt he people should know that there were 
still men to be found ready to dare all dangers in 
search of the truth. They thronged the place in 
front of the door through which Jesus passed with 
his guide, on his way to the Temple of Wisdom ; they 
shouted and made much noise, obstructing the way ; 
but the Thesmophores drove them back, and they 
passed safely through the crowd. (This must not 
be understood in its literal sense. The people that 
bad been assembled and who made noise and obstruct- 



234 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIKE 

ed the way, must be understood as the lower Elemeii- 
tals that have their being in all men until they are 
overcome by Light and Love. This is also the mean- 
ing of Transmuting the Baser^ or lower, metals into 
the pure gold, or Higher nature). 

Having entered the vestibule of the temple, the 
candidate was taken to a Crypt, where he took a bath 
(became purified), and received new garments, and 
underwent the prescribed preparation to be intro- 
duced to the assembly of Brothers. 

The Portal of Man was guarded by the Pasta- 
pliores, who, as they arrived, inquired about their 
purpose and asked Jesus various questions. Hav- 
ing received satisfactory replies, the door opened, 
and he entered a large hall, wherein in a semicircle 
were seated the Brothers, and in their midst the 
Hierophant. Before this assembly Jesus again 
passed an examination, answering numerous ques- 
tions in regard to his subjective experiences during 
his isolation. (The student will easily, comprehend 
that it is from this part of Christ's Initiation that 
the story of his being in the Temple before the 
Priests, took form. Christ was certainly before the 
Priests, and astonised them by his apt answers to 
their questions, but the Bible story is but a legend 
founded on truth as are all legends, no matter how 
untruthful they may seem.) 

He was then led around the Bisantha, and there 
the strength of his narves and his physical courage, 
by certain methods which cannot be made intelli- 
gible to the modern reader, because they involve an 
emj)loyment of certain forces of nature, the secret of 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 235 

which was in the possession of the Atlai deans and 
Egyptians, but whose very existence is as yet un- 
known to western civilization. It may be sufficient 
to say, that if claps of thunder resounded and bolts 
of lightning seemed to strike the candidate, they 
were not produced in the manner employed in thea- 
trical performances upon the stage, but they were 
the effects of natural forces, set into action by the 
occult powers possessed by the Egyptian Adepts. 
The most horrible spectres appeared, but Jesus was 
not afraid. 

Having successfully passed through this trial, he 
was again taken before the assembly, and the Menis 
read to him the laws of the Crata Repoa^ which after 
due examination, he solemnly promised to obey. By 
a certain process known to the Hierophant, his spir- 
itual vision was then opened; that is to say, he v/as 
endowed for a short time with the powers to see cer- 
tain spiritual verities represented in allegorical 
forms. He found himself standing between two 
square columns, called Bestiles, and there was a lad- 
der with seven steps and eight closed doors — the ex- 
ternal senses. As he beheld that vision, its meaning 
was at once clear to him, for spiritual visions differ 
from mere dreams especially in so far as he who be- 
holds a symbolical vision becomes at the same time 
aware of its meaning, else it would be useless to show 
such a vision to him. No vision is possible, nor will 
the spiritual sight he opened to the initiate mdess he 
first has learned, through long training and coricen- 
tration, to silence the senses and passions of the moral 
frame. In that short moment, during which his 
inner sight was opened, Jesus learned to know tlie 



gSfi THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

fundamental principles of the Cosmos, a science 
which would require manj- months of instruction to 
be described in words and to be brought to the un- 
derstanding of the not self-luminous intellect. Knowl- 
edge cannot he gained by any outside teachings. We 
can take a teacher s authority for what he may 
tell us, hut we cannot know, or have knowledge unless 
the inner perceptions, the veiy soul, tells us that it is 
so and given the wherefore. From the inner heing— 
the spirit, alone can come knowledge and under- 
standing. 

The Hierophant then spoke as follows: "I am 
speaking only to you who have the right and the 
power to hear me — the materialist has neither right 
nor power to know inner truths, it is only he, who 
through training and right living, has heen enabled 
to aioaken the still small voice, the inner heing, who 
can understand spiritual truths. Firmly close all the 
doors— external senses — and exclude all the profane, 
the sophists and scoffers — prejudices; but you, chil- 
dren of the celestial labor — spiritual perception, hear 
my words: Beware of passions and evil desires; 
beware of erroneous opinions and intellectual preju- 
dices. Keep your mind continually directed toward 
the divine source of all existence, strive after a con- 
tinual realization of the presence of the Supreme; 
and if you desire to walk upon the Path of Light to 
Eternal happiness, do not forget for even a moment, 
that you are living in the consciousness of Him whose 
power has created the world. He is all things and 
all things are in Him. He is self-existent, pure 
knowledge, pure wisdom; and although He is seen 



by no man, there is nothing within the Universe that 
can hide itself from His sight" . 

Jesus had now become a member of the Brother- 
hood. He was taught the laws of Nature, and tnade 
to see there is nothing dead in Nature, but that all 
forms are manifestaitions of the one Universal power 
of Life, He was t\aught the cause of the physical 
phenomena occurring in the world of pheiiomena, 
the nature of Light and Sound, of Heat and Elec- 
tricity; and all other things. He was also instructed 
in Astronomy and Medicine and in the science of 
Hieroglyphics, 

The spiritual nature of Man was explained to him 
and the laws of Reincarnation. How the human 
monad again and> again descends to build up a mortal 
physical form and to evolve a new personality at each 
of its visits upon this globe; that the human form, 
which we knotv as men_, women and children, are not 
the real Man, but merely ever-changing aggregations 
of matter, endowed ivith an ever-changing conscious- 
ness, unsubstantial although living illusions, doomed 
to perish when the Spirit retires to its home, to rest 
from its labor; while the substantial, indivisible, and 
incorruptible SpiHt is the real Man, although invis- 
ible to the perception of mortals. 

He ivas taught the signification of the sacred syl- 
lable aum and of certain, symbolical signs, including 
the double-interlaced Triangle^ the Snake, and the 
Tani, and his office was to guard the portals of nian, 
so that nothing impure would enter; for no one was 
ev£'CJidmLitted into the sanctuxiry of the^^^^^^^^ 
unless he first proved himself a faithful guardian of 



238 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

that door by which evil thoughts and desires attempt 
to enter the mind, 

A year or more may have passed by^ when the new 
Pastophores obtained permission to enter the second 
degree, called Necoris. As a preparation for this 
degree he had to undergo a severe fasting, after which 
he was introduced into a grotto, called Endymion, 

This grotto was furnished in a Inxnriant manner. 
It was without windows, but lamps that were sus- 
pended from the ceiling, and fed with perfumed oiU 
shed a soft light through the room. Tlie richest 
food and the most delicious wines were set before 
the Neophyte, and he was invited to partake ; for now 
— so they told him — ^he had won the victory, and he 
might now indulge in sensual pleasures without any 
risk of sin. The most beautiful maidens waited on 
him, and their bewitching smiles told him that he 
had onl}^ to mention a wish, to see it fulfilled. It 
was evident that he was an object of admiration to 
them, and that they were willing to be his slaves. 

Bui Jesus resisted their tempting wiles. His aspi- 
rations were for something far higher than the grati- 
fication of sensual appetites; the beauty of the cor- 
poreal form, however pleasing it may be to the eyes, 
could not enslave him who has learned to hnow the 
beauty of the Spirit, and as the evening approached, 
the fair tempters, with looks full of disappointment 
and unfulfilled desire, disappeared one after another, 
and Jesus, after securely locking the door, threw 
himself upon a couch. 

While he was meditating there, a slight noise at- 
tracted his attention, and he saw one of the most 
beautiful females that mortal eye ever beheld, en- 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 239 

teriBg through a secret door, whose existence had 
escaped his observation. She was of most noble 
appearance and stately form, clad in loose, flowing 
garments, and with a sparkling diadem upon her 
head. Thus may have looked the chaste goddess 
Diana^ when she watched the sleeping Endymion. 
An expression full of pity and love rested upon her 
face, as she approached the couch where Jesus rested. 

^^Fear nothing," she said ; ^^I do not come to tempt 
but to save thee. T am the daughter of the guardian 
of this temple, and I have learned the danger which 
is threatening thee. Dost thou not know that these 
villainous priests have resolved to kill thee ? for thou 
hast forfeited thy life by learning some of their 
mysteries. Thou, a foreigner, hast learned secrets 
which no one but the Egyptians are permitted to 
know. This evening they have resolved to kill thee, 
and the murder is to be executed even to-night. I 
have come to save thee ; I have made sure thy escape ; 
rise and follow me, for I admire thy valor and I 
do not wish thee to perish." 

'^Beautiful one," answered Jesus^, ^^I will not dis- 
pute they words; but if the priests have resolved to 
kill me, let them do so; for I have promised to obey 
the laws; of this brotherhood, and I have no right to 
escape." 

^^Ts there not," answered the temptress, "a higher 
law than the laws made by these priests ? Is tliere 
not the law of nature, superior to all other laws? 
Does not the law of they nature permit and command 
thee to save thyself V' 

^^Spare thy words," answered Jesus. ''I hnow my 



240 THE PHILOSOPHY^ OF FIRE 

duty, I shall remain and await whatever my fate 
may he/' 

'Then/' said the lady, ^'I must tell thee what my 
modesty forbids me to say. It is not the life of a 
fugitive that I came to offer to thee, but a life of un- 
bounded love^ a life of Jiappiness and of luxury. 
Yes/' she continued after a pause, drawing still near- 
er to him and putting her soft white hand upon his 
shoulder, ^'I love thee. Look into my eyes and see 
whether or not what I am telling is true. Wilt thou 
bury tliy manhood in these living tombs, to seek 
after things which exist merely in thy imagination ? 
Come with me, and I will give thee a substantial 
happiness far superior to any that thou mayst find 
within these gloomy walls. Can there be any great- 
er happiness for a man than the love of a beautiful 
woman ? 1 am rich, I am free, I am beautiful ; I 
love thee with all the passionate love of which woman 
is capable. Come with me, and thou shalt never 
repent it.'' 

'Tair one," answered Jesus, ''all the earthly ele- 
ments of my material nature are striving to fly to thy 
embrace; but they are held by the superior will of 
the spirit. I do not seek for happiness within these 
walls, nor could I find contentment in the tilings 
which thou offerest me. I seek for happiness in that 
which is not subject to change; that which thou 
canst give is subject to decay. I reject thy offer." 

''Dare to reject it!" answered the woman. "Dost 
thou know" what a woman whose love is spurned can 
do? I shall not leave thee, for my soul clings to 
thee; to be separated from thee would be death!" 
As she spoke these words, she drew a dagger from 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 241 

her belt and pointed it to her breast. ^^Spurn my 
love/' she said^ ^^and this weapon will enter my 
heart ! I will not live without thee ; hut if I die, my 
death will also cost thee thy life ; for if my body is 
found in this grotto to-morrow^^ thou wilt be accused 
of being my murderer, and be executed for it.'' See- 
ing that her threats had no effect upon the Neo- 
phyte, she threw the dagger upon the floor, and, 
sinking down at his feet^ implored him for his love. 
She tore away her veil, and her beautiful hair drop- 
ped over her shoulders ; tears streamed from her 
eyes, and her appeals ended in sobs. 

^T)epart !" sternly answered Jesus, and the fair 
one arose and retreated ; but as she disappeared from 
sight, another door opened, and a stream of light 
entered the room. The Hierophant and some of the 
Brothers appeared at the entrance, and, congratulat- 
ing him on his victory which he had gained, they 
led him to a large hall, where, after submitting to 
the ceremony of baptism, he was pronounced to be 
w^orthy to be admitted to a higher degree. 

Thus should he, who is the guardian of the door, 
beware that no secret entrance is left open, by which 
a favorite passion may enter, and if the temptress 
should enter unaware, during his slumber, he should 
call to his aid the superior power of his awakened 
Will, and repel her. Then will the door of his soul be 
open. Reason tuill enter and guide him by the light of 
Divine Wisdom nearer to permanent Peace. 

"To learn the mysteries of the Spirit, we must descend 
into the subterranean caves where the treasures are hidden." 

After a few days of rest and contemplation, Jesus 
16 



242 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

was told that the time had arrived when his courage 
and daring would have to undergo a severe trial. 
His eyes were again blindfolded, and he was taken 
to a subterranean cave, into which he had to descend 
by means of a ladder. Having arrived at the bot- 
tom, he removed the bandage from his eyes, accord- 
ing to the directions he had previously received ; but 
he could see no light. The cavern was dark, and at 
first he could not discern any objects; but he heard 
hissing sounds close by his side. He made a few 
steps in advance, and stepped upon a living thing 
that was gliding over the floor, and which immedi- 
ately wriggled itself around his leg. Then the fact 
immediately came to his consciousness that he was 
in a den of serpents, and that to faint would mean 
to be lost. Gradually his eyes became accustomed to 
the deep darkness, and he discerned the eyes and 
forms of the reptiles that lurked in all the comers. 
The cavern seemed to be filled with snakes of all 
kinds. Twisted together in disgnisting knots, some 
were lying on the floor, and others wormed them- 
selves over the rocks. He seated himself upon a 
stone, and soon the snakes began to approach, as if to 
resent his presence. They crawled over his legs, 
twisted themselves around his arms and all over his 
body. 

At first Jesus was horrified; but his horror was 
only of a moment's duration, for he immediately 
called to his aid his higher consciousness and re- 
membered that his terrestrial form, subject to the 
disgusting embraces of the crawling reptiles, and 
made of the same stuff as they, was not his real Self, 
but merely a form to which he — ^the divine Man — 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 243 

was for the time being attached. This thought en- 
abled him to look upon everything that might happen 
to his body as if he were an independent spectator. In 
this way he appealed for aid to his own God, and 
as he did so, a superior strength, a power unknown 
before, seemed to pervade his whole body, and now 
it seemed as if his power had invested him with some 
property that made him repulsive to the serpents; 
for soon the reptiles that were in contact with his 
body left him and retired into their holes. 

Thus if man descends to the innermost depths of 
his soul, he may find it infested with poisonous ser- 
pents and venomous reptiles^ the symbols of the brood 
of passions and spirit of evil desires; but if he calls 
to his aid the divine Wisdom^ the persecutions will 
cease and peace will return. 

After having passed through this severe trial, he 
was released from his prison and led again to the 
temple. 

For a second time his spiritual eyes were opened 
by the Magic power of the Hierophant, and he was 
made to behold in his vision a Griffin and a turning 
wheel with four spohes. Then the whole process of 
Evolution became clear to his understanding, and he 
saw how in the course of millions of ages, worlds 
upon worlds had been evolved from the incomprehen- 
sible centre. He beheld waves of Life passing from 
planet to planet, arid each fiery orb, each globe, each 
solar system, had peculiar forms of its own, and all 
these various forms were manifestations of one and 
the same Supreme Power, that men call "God/' and 
formed out of its own substance. 

The air, the earth, and the water were filled with 



244 THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 

forms of life, having bodies of a kind of manner too 
refined to be seen by mortal eyes. Some were lum- 
inous, others dark, and the regions above the sphere 
of the Earth were inhabited by beings of a seemingly 
supernatural beauty. He saw :ihe Nature-spirits of 
the four elements. He saw what Man had been in 
the distant past and what he would be at a future 
period of time far beyond the calculation of mortals. 
He saw how the gross material elements of which 
the Earth is now composed, would in the far-dis- 
tant future be changed into a substance of a superior 
and ethereal kind, so that what we now call ^^Earth'' 
would be like water, and what we call ^^ Water" like 
air, and what we call ^^Air" like the ether of space^ 
and with the transformation of all beings, Man him- 
self would enter into a silperior state of existence. 

The science which deals with these problems is far 
too grand and extensive to be more than merely 
touched upon in these pages, nor would it benefit 
the uninitiated reader, if we were to enter into its de- 
tails ; for so long as the interior perception which en- 
ables men to perceive these things is not opened, such 
a discussion will be a mere matter of speculation, 
serving more for amusement than for the attainment 
of knowledge. 

In this degree he was taught the great law of 
Karma; that is to say, the law of Cause and Effect, 
not merely upon the physical plane, where the law of 
Mechanics exists, but in that higher realm, where di- 
vine Justice rules supreme, where Good finds its own 
reward, and Evil its own punishment. He saw that 
whatever man may think or do, would produce a cor- 
responding reaction upon himself, and that he who 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 245 

benefits others is thereby benefiting himself, while he 
who injures others is thereby decreeing his own pun- 
ishment. He saw that the acts of men are the ex- 
ternal symbols of their interior lives, and that every 
thought and act has a tendency to repeat itself. 
Thoughts seemed to him like beings struggling for 
life, seeking to become embodied in acts ; and if they 
were once thus embodied, they clung to .their life in 
the same way as man clings to his, but the power 
which invested these thoughts with life was the Will, 
and unless man's thoughts were kept alive by his 
Will, they died and putrefied like the corporeal 
things upon the physical plane. "^ 

The length of the time during which the Necoris 
had to remain in the second degree^ before he was 
permitted to enter the third, called MelanephoreSy de- 
pended on his own progress. Many never attaind 
any higher than the second degree; but those who 
were permitted to advance higher had to pass through 
the Portal of Death; for this was the name of the 
door through which they who desired to obtain pow- 
ers which belong to a higher than merely personal 
existence had to enter, before they could acquire 
them. 

Without hesitation Jesus followed those who were 
appointed to guide him. They descended into the 
tombs, where the mummies were kept and which 
were to be a living tomb to him, if he did not Succeed 
in liberating himself therefrom by his own magic 
power. The room which he entered was filled with 

* See the secret instructions concerning the Elementals 
in 'The Beautiful Philosophy of Initiation." 

16 I 



246 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

corpses of the dead, while in the midst of the cham- 
ber stood the sarcophagus of osiris still overflowing 
with blood. The Paraskites — i, e., the men who 
opened the bodies of the dead — and the Heroi — -who 
attended to the embalming — ^were at their work. 
From thence he entered into another room, where he 
was met by all the Melanephores, dressed in black. 
They took, him before the King, and the latter ad- 
dressing him in a very kind manner, advised him to 
desist from further attempts to penetrate still deeper 
into the Mysteries, and to remain satisfied with that 
which he had already gained. He praised the IsTeo- 
phyte for his courage and virtues and told him that 
it were better for him to remain contented and to de- 
sist from further research. He told him that if he 
would do so, he would be highly honored by all on 
account of the knowledge he had already gained ; and 
in token of the high esteem in which he held the 
Neophyte, the king took his own golden crown from 
his head and offered it to him. But Jesus, under- 
standing the meaning of the symbol, threw the crown 
down upon the floor and stepped upon it with his 
foot, saying that it was not his object to be admired 
and to gratify his ambition for fame or to be praised 
by men; but that he desired wisdom and desired it 
for its own sake alone. 

As he did so, a cry of indignation arose from those 
present and a ceremony took place which upon the 
external plane represented the well-known internal 
truth, that Ambition is the King of all passions and 
that to give up one's Ambition is like giving up one's 
own self ; for mans soul being made up to a great 
extent of desires, dies the mystic death, when he hills 



THE PHILOSOPHY OP t^IRE 24? 

his ruling desire. It is then ''as if the heart were 
bleeding and the whole life of man seems to be 
utterly dissolved/' 

This was the terrible ordeal through which Jesus 
had to pasSj and through which every other Neophyte 
must pass if he desires Initiatioiij and before he can 
enter the Temple of Wisdom. 

The judgment of the departed soul before Pluto, 
Mhadamantes, and Minos was then enacted ; for when 
the king of ambition in the soul of man dies, his 
daughter, Vanity, dies with him, and in his place 
arises a sense of one's unworthiness. The accusing, 
judging^ and revenging angels then appear in the 
soul, until the tortured heart sends its despairing 
cries to the Redeemer, the Truth; when the celestial 
powers awaken within, to comfort the soul and guide 
her to the harbor of peac€. 

During this process of ceremony the whole of 
Jesus'^ past life, with all tlie minutest details that 
ever took place within his mental organization, ap- 
peared before his vision; but when the initiation 
was ended he knew that the lower elements within 
his soul had died and that he himself had been 
changed into another being. He then received the 
special instructions belonging to this degriee, and he 
was especially shown the sanctity of all life and the 
full meaning of the words: ^^Thou shalt not kill/' 

While he remained in this degree, the Hierogram' 
matical art of writing, the history of Egypt, geog- 
raphy, cosmology, and astronomy were taught hirii; 
but his princi^l occupation, in this as in all other 
degrees, was the cultivation of the power of Intuition, 
by ivhich imm may know the truth and attuin wis- 



248 THE PHIIiOSOPHY OF FIRE 

donij, independent of all books or external informa- 
tion and without the necessity of adopting the opin- 
ions of others. 

For a long time Jesus remained in the tombs, at- 
tending to the disposal of the bodies of the dead; 
nor was any one of the members of this degree ever 
permitted to leave them during the rest of their na- 
tural lives, unless they attained that Magic Power, 
known to the Adepts by which the Astral body of man 
may leave at will the prison house of the terrestrial 
body. Those who were not able to acquire this power 
had to remain in their tombs, and their duty was to 
attend to the embalming and the burial of the dead. 

Thus the souls of those who are incapable of enter- 
ing a higher state of consciousness during their terres- 
trial liveSj will have to remain within their living 
tombs of gross matter, overshadowed by the dark- 
ness of ignorance, engaged in ministering to that 
which is worthless and without eternal life, and to 
preserve from decay useless memories of terrestrial 
things. They will continue to follow their worth- 
less occupations and be servants of empty forms and 
illusions until the angel of death releases them from 
their prisons, to lead them from the darkness of 
matter into the eternal darkness beyond. 

"He who thoroughly knows his own self, knows every- 
thing." 

"The fourth degree of the Essenian Brotherhood 

was called 'The Baitles of the Shadows/ In this 

degree the Christophores (Christos) — as he was now 

called — was taught the nature of Good and Evil and 

how to conquer Evil by Good. He was taught how 

to cut off the head of the beautiful Gorgon^ without 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 249 

hesitating on account of her almost supematurally 
beautiful fomi. He was instructed in the art of 
Necromancy, i. e., the art to deal with the astral 
bodies of the dead and with those dangerous beings, 
called Elementals/^' who inhabited the astral world, 
and to make them subservient to their will. Woe 
to him whom the power of spiritual Will deserted 
even for one moment during these trials; the prin- 
ciples of Evil which he attempted to subject to his 
Will would then become his masters, and insanity or 
death was the results 

In attempting to describe some of the mysteries of 
the Higher Degrees in the Essenian Brotherhood, we 
are attempting to enter upon a field where only those 
can enter who have themselves obtained some ex- 
perience of practical Occultism; for how could the 
magic processes that took place in the ''Battle of the 
Shadows'' be described to persons whose knowledge 
consists merely of the information they have received 
from an age which denies that magic or spiritual 
powers exist? It will require perhaps centuries of 
scientific investigation before our sceptics will under- 
stand the Magic power of the spiritually awahened 
Will, and before they can be brought to a knowledge 
that feats of Magic do not belong to the realm of the 
fable, and it may require many centuries more, be- 
fore such powers will become the property of the 
manv. 

And yet the world is still full of Magic. The 
magic power of Love still exercises its influence over 
the hearts; the magic of Imagination still makes 

* See the "Beautiful Philosophy of Initiation." 



250 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRJS 

men mournful or glad; the Will of the strong still 
controls by its magic power the mind of the weak, 
and the foolish are still ruled by the superior magic 
power of the spirit of those who are wise; but such 
wonders like that of the growth of a tree, do not sur- 
prise us, merely because we are accustomed to wit- 
ness them every day. 

The Egyptian Adepts and Magicians may not have 
been in possession of all that our modern science 
knows in regard to the relations which exist between 
external phenomena ; but they had a method, known 
only to a few of our present age^ to develop the power 
to look into that realm called the invisible, but which 
is a world far more real and substantial than the so- 
called visible world. Men are prone to jump at con- 
clusions drawn from sensual observation and to re- 
gard the visible side of nature as the actual world 
and to reject that which is bieyond sensual percep- 
tion ; but even, a superficial reflection will convince 
mail that the terms ^Visible'' and invisible" are mere- 
ly relative; for whether or not a thing may be seen 
by us, depends not merely on its own nature, but 
also on the construction and quality of the organs of 
our perception. What may be seen by one, may be 
invisible to another who is devoid of the organ of 
sight; and what may be invisible to many, may ba 
visible to those whose inner powers of perceptioji 
have become open. 

There i^ no relative Good without relative Evil. 
There is no niah so pure, as not to have some animal 
eleraents within his constitution, and tve^e there such 
a man, he would not he able to develop higher; for 
it is this very animal element from which the soul 



THE PHILOSOPHY OP FIRE 251 

of man draws its nourishment and strength to rise 
higher and to become mo7'^ spirituaL Not to destroy, 
but to make use of the elements of evil in man for 
the purpose of accomplishing good, is the object of 
the higher education. When the higher life begins to 
awaken within the soul and the light of the Spirit 
penetrates into the regions of the elementals, the ani- 
mal egoes begin to revolt and to rise to the surface. 
They may even appear in objective form and perse- 
cute their creator. Then the dread dweller of the 
threshhold may show his face. He is nothing else but 
a product of mans own imagination, but nevertheless 
living and as real as any other living thing among 
the so-called realities of this world, a7id if the can- 
didate for Initiation is subject to fear, he may be- 
come its victim and insanity residt, for the Dweller 
of the Threshold will then again and with increased 
power take possession of his mind.^ 

There is a region in the soul of man in which such 
Divellers reside. In very degraded persons this re- 
gion swarms with living, semi-developed or full- 
grown animal principles and subjective monstrosities 
of all kinds and under certain conditions, especially 
if the physical organism is weakened by disease, they 
may — so to say — step out of their centre, and assume 
an objective form, clothing themselves in the grosser 
elements of matter and becoming visible even to the 
external senses. The Materialization of modei^n 
Spiritualism furnishes an example of this. 

If the candidate in that Brotherhood succeeded in 



* See "History of the Rosicrucians/' and "Beautiful Phil- 
osophy of Initiation." 



252 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

overcoming all these obstacles, he became a partaker 
of the Demiurgos — the creative power in nature, and 
in possession of absokite Truth. The bitter cup which 
he was to drink, caused him to rise above all earthly 
ills arising from his lower nature, and he received 
his daily food from the King, His name was then 
entered into the Book of Life — Immortality^ and he 
became one of the judges of the country. His em- 
blem was an Owl, representing I sis, the Goddess of 
Nature; he was presented with a palm leaf and an 
olive branch, the emblems of Peace. The ^^password^' 
of that degree was ioa — Jehovah, and the under- 
standing of its exoteric signification involved a 
knowledge of the creative principle in Nature. 
Henceforth he received his instructions from no man, 
but from the Demiurgic — Spiritually Awakened — 
Mind. 

He who had attended the degree of Christophores 
was entitled to apply to the Demiurgos for the still 
higher degree of Balahate. In this degree he was 
perniitted to see Typhoon — Divinity in his terrible 
form; of endless extent, containing within himself 
all that exists in the Universe; the All-creator and 
All-destroyer. 

"With eyes and faces, infinite in form. 

The everlasting Cause, a mass of Light, 
In every region hard to look upon; 

Bright as the blaze of the burning lire and sun, 
On every side, and vast beyond all bounds." 

— Bhagavad Gita. 

But the Balahate had awakeend to a full conscious- 
ness of the Immortal principle within, and was no 
longer terrified to see the destruction of all change- 
able things. He now knew the nature of the secret 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 25^ 

fire that regenerates the world and which renders 
him who comes into its possession immortaL 

In the sixth degree the Adept was instructed by 
the Demiurges in all the secrets of Astrology ; that 
is to say, in the science of the spiritual aspects of 
the stars; he learned to loiow the directions of the 
spiritual life-currents, pervading the Soul of the 
Universe; he became even a being superior to the 
Devas and Angels and in possession of all spiritual 
powers. 

The seventh and highest degree, called Paliclia, 
could not be^applied for^ but was conferred by the 
power of divine Grace upon those who were willing 
to receive it. In this divine degree^ the holiest of 
holies, the ultimate mystery was revealed to the 
spiritual perception of the Adept. He received a 
Cross, which he had to wear continually during his 
terrestrial life^ the hair upon his head was cut off^ 
he received the key to the understanding of all the 
Mysteries, he obtained the privilege to elect the king 
of the country, or — to speak in plain words and leave 
off allegorical expressions — his soul became one with 
the ruler of all and he entered into the essence of 
Godr 

Whether the events described in these pages ever 
took place on the external or on the internal plane, 
or on both, the reader may decide for himself. If 
such things are enacted merely externally without 
taking place internally, then they are mere shams. 
Every external act which is not true representation 
of internal life is a sham, and our modern civiliza- 
tion is made up of such shams. Our secret societies 
have come into possession of some of the forms and 



254 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

ceremonies used by the Ancient Egyptians; but tliey 
have merely the form; the spirit went away long 
ago. Let him who would follow the path of true 
Initiation remember this, that, if he desires to reach 
and become an Initiate he must follow the Path so 
plainly laid out 

First comes thought, and afterwards comes that 
interior Illumination by which men are baptized 
with fire from the Holy Spirit of Truth, that de- 
scends upon those who are pure in heart, like a white 
dove descending from heaven. Man may be led up 
to the truth by argumentation, but he can only be 
saved by knowledge. Reason is the prophet, but 
Wisdom is the Redeemer. Thought must precede 
knowledge; but without the Light of Divine Wis- 
dom thought is like a voice in the wilderness, calling 
for help; an intellect without Love becomes easily 
lost in the mazes of speculations and misleading 
opinions. Therefore you, who desire to be saved, 
repent of your errors ; give up your self fishness, that 
causes you to seek for knowledge merely on account 
of the benefits you hope to derive therefrom; open 
your eyes to see the true saviour, the Light of Wis- 
dom, which you may find below the dark clouds of 
ignorance by which your heart is surrounded.'^ 

THE END. 



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